There's still 4 days to join the party and be eligible to vote in the leadership race. I coughed up the $10 as part of my little campaign to keep Doug Ford out of office.
He e-mailed me his platform (as part of a mass e-mailing) today:
Educating our kids is the most important job in the world.
Right now, half of our grade 6 students aren’t meeting the provincial standard in math.
This is a crisis.
We need to focus on teaching kids facts, not ideology.
That’s why if I’m elected as leader, I’ll take issues like sex-ed to parents.
Because public schools should focus on getting kids ready to get great jobs.
Beyond that, parents should get the first and final say.
I will remain firm on this issue.
I have always respected the taxpayer.
I have always opposed the carbon tax.
I will always stand for parents deciding what their children learn at school.
And what part of this do you have a problem with?
Let me see. Oh... pretty much everything.
It is written as if to a four year old. Massive non sequitur there about the carbon tax - let's just jam that in there somehow eh?
Parents shouldn't get the final say on education unless they happen to have degrees in education. Parents are free to teach whatever they like at home; school is to learn facts, ways of thinking, and so on (and no doubt it isn't a perfect system at the moment; but holy shit, I know that the education system is going to give my children a much better education than I would be able to on my own).
Sex-ed? I don't even remember the details of this but my God, we would be better as a race if we were a little less uptight about sex generally.
I have always respected the taxpayer?! Oh fuck off. Really.
I will bring back jobs to America Canada because we've had some bad trade deals. Possibly the worst trade deals in history. I've made some great deals. I've always supported coal miners.
My issues, point by point:
Educating kids is important. More important jobs than educating kids exist. Like feeding people who are starving, not supporting torture, preventing child pornography/abuse, etc. This is a stupid statement.
My parents are both teachers. They were there when the new educational standard in Ontario was introduced. It's tougher curriculum, but it's a significantly better way to learn. It focuses on teaching children to think and reason about a problem, and de-prioritizes rote memorization. Although Ford's comment is not specific, it sounds like he's in favour of returning to easier (and less useful) rote memorization.
While sex ed is part of the curriculum, any parent can opt to have their child removed from health class while sex ed is being taught. Given that this is already the case, it sounds like Ford simply wants to remove sex ed from the classroom entirely - including for children who want their kids to learn about it. That's actually a negative for freedom - not a positive.
Public schools aren't in the business of getting kids ready for jobs, they're there to lay a baseline level of education upon which the child can build. Kids really aren't getting jobs anyway. Job training tends to happen more at the highschool, college, and university level. Without a degree, your kid is not likely going to be getting a job that requires much prior training education anyway.
I honestly have no idea what any of:
"parents should get the first and final say"
"I will remain firm on this issue"
"I have always respected the taxpayer"
really mean.
Dunno how carbon tax worked it's way into this rant about education, but this kinda seems like Ford has no idea what he's talking about. The provinces and federal government have already agreed to implement a carbon tax by the end of 2018. If they don't, the federal government will implement one for them. Regardless of opposition to it, people in Ontario (along with the rest of Canada) will be paying a carbon tax . . . so this is a weird thing to put in the letter.
"I will always stand for parents deciding what their children learn at school." is another confusing statement. What exactly is he talking about? People can opt out of sex ed. People can choose to go to a public secular or Catholic school if they want. People are allowed to send their kids to a private school or even homeschool if they don't like the curriculum. What additional choice is Ford hoping for?