Bill 160
The Honourable David Johnson introduced Bill 160, the Education Quality Improvement Act during the first Session of the 36th Parliament of the Province of Ontario. Bill 160 was originally written as "an act to reform the education system, protect classroom funding, and enhance accountability and make other improvements consistent with the Government's education quality agenda, including improving student achievement and regulated class size". The negative effects of Bill 160 were displayed using several different political concepts. These include historical background, power, politics, authority, influence, legitimacy, coercion and obligation.
Bill 160 was introduced in late 1997. The teacher's strike occurred in October and lasted for two weeks. Despite province wide protest from many, the bill was passed in December 1997. With advertising, the government tried to make the teachers look greedy and selfish. Instead, this helped the teachers gain support from parents and the community. Previously, the government had an established Education Act. Bob Rae's New Democratic Party government made huge cuts in education funding and in teacher's salaries.
Bill 160 was written to allow the Ministry and Cabinet to intervene and control every aspect of the school boards. It also enables the suspension of trustees who do not support their commands. This bill creates centralized power and decentralized blame. Some people see it as an unprecedented power grab. The school boards and trustees are still accountable, but their ability to take action on issues has been completely taken away. Whenever changes are needed, the Ministry can make them through regulation. No legislations will be needed; therefore no consultations of any kind are required. Neither the public nor the members of Provincial Parliament have any say in what goes on. Bill 160 makes school councils mandatory, but provides them with no effective role or support. As a former student representative in the Roman Catholic school board, I felt our influence on our own education would be diminished. If there were any issues that arose with the curriculum, students would have to go to Toronto to complain. We would no longer be able to go to the local school board, which was amalgamated because of Bill 160. With the passing of the bill, seventy new school boards to be created, including one massive school board covering all of Metropolitan Toronto.
No greater obligation is placed on school officials than to protect the children in their charge from foreseeable dangers, whether those dangers arise from the careless acts or intentional transgressions of others. Although the overarching mission of a board of education is to educate, its first imperative must be to do no harm to the children in its care. A board of education must take reasonable measures to assure that the teachers and administrators who stand as surrogate parents during the day are educating, not endangering, and protecting, not exploiting, vulnerable children (Frugis v. Bracigliano, 2003).
William Edward Forster drafted the Education Act of 1870 after the government decided to educate the citizens of the country and because England feared that they lacked an effective education system (Docstoc-documents). This act was also known as the Elementary Education Act and it was a culmination of a long struggle (thirty years) to establish an effective and nationwide education schooling system for children ages 5 to 12 (Looking at History). Jackson wrote, “Forster did not go to school until he was thirteen, he was taught by his mother” (16) could be the reason why he started the Education Act. Therefore W.E. Forster contributed in creating school boards for England, and the country would be divided into about 2,500 school districts (Spartacus Educational). Like W.E. Forster stated in his speech, there are two primary objects in this bill t...
The U.S. remembered the post World War I recession, when millions of veterans returned to unemployment and homelessness. Twice as many veterans would return from World War II, and a repeat of World War I was on everyone's mind. As early as 1942, plans were being made to handle the anticipated postwar problems. The National Resources Planning Board, a White House agency, had studied postwar manpower needs and in June 1943, recommended a series of programs for education and training. The American Legion is credited with designing the main features of the GI Bill and pushing it through Congress. The Legion overcame objections that the proposed bill was too sweeping and could jeopardize veterans getting any help at all. At the time Congress had already failed to act on about 640 bills concerning veterans. Members of the American Legion met first in Washington on December 15, 1943, and by January 6 had completed the first draft of the GI Bill. The board outlines were in the final law signed six months later. John Stelle, a former Governor of Illinois, and a leader of the Legion, is credited with drawing up the first draft of the bill that eventually became law.
The implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act applied a market approach to school reform as a way of improving the school system. This new law promised an era of high standards, testing, and accountability in
By having school board meetings, it helps to see what the school’s needs. This is very important for the reason that this may be the only time that a concern parent or person voice might be heard. From this meeting, it was learned that the school board members are willing to help people that have concerns. An example, of this, was when the concern Pre-K parent was worried that she heard that Pre-K has been just a daycare. However, someone from the board mentioned to her that she would personally go with the parent the next day and show her how Pre-K is running during the day. This made the parent so happy because her concerns were being met. I have learned that school board members look out for the students and that they are the number one source that community members should go to if they have a concern or a suggestion to better their children’s
...management of their educational establishments. Although there are many debates still taking place today on how the education system needs improving or re-addressing, the fact remains that the education acts focused on in this essay, greatly impacted and improved the British education system in terms of the quality of education and equality for pupils.
The service delivery types that are used in House Bill 790 consist of client-centered management, case management, and centralized management. Client-centered management emphasizes on developing benefits that are client and consumer based (Chambers & Bonk, 2013). House Bill 790 is client based towards minors because although minors are still being placed in solitary, the four-hour time block within a 24-hour period was made to accommodate the well-being of minors and to avoid the dreadful effects of being placed in solitary for days, months, and years at a time in North Carolina prisons. House Bill 790 also mandates for the minors who are placed in solitary to develop an individualized plan that includes their goals and objectives in life, which is another way how House Bill 790 incorporates client-centered management (Solitary Confinement in Prisons, 2017)
Voss, Kate. "23 Years after the Clery Act, Are Schools Any Safer?" The College Fix RSS. N.p., 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Nov. 2013. .
This was a summary of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. I got almost all of my information on this act from this site.
When Lyndon Johnson entered the office of President of the United States he knew that the education system needed some changes. So he created the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This act had many parts Lawrence McAndrews and Kathryn Scott recount all the aspects of this act in the article “Full Circle: Elementary and Secondary Education Politics and Policies of Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton”,
Currently in the 1995 Education Act, it states that “compulsory school age in Saskatchewan is age seven to 15 years inclusive. Persons in charge of a student (e.g. parent or guardian) must ensure the student’s regular attendance in a provincial school if the student is of compulsory school age (Walk, Chomos, Burgess, 2009, p.4)”. It is important to understand that regular attendance is mandated in the province of Saskatchewan and has pre-determined consequences for failure to comply with this responsibility. Challenges in dealing with student attendance are in direct relation to a priority of publicly funded schools and needs to be addressed in a manner that with a high level of importance. Through statistics, research and studies this paper will look at the rationale of a specific attendance challenges, relation to student outcomes, stakeholder interests, ethical and legal issues and finally strategies to improve the situation.
Since federalism was introduced as an aspect of Canadian political identity, the country has undergone multiple changes as to how federalism works; in other words, over the decades the federal and provincial governments have not always acted in the same way as they do now. Canada, for example, once experienced quasi-federalism, where the provinces are made subordinate to Ottawa. Currently we are in an era of what has been coined “collaborative federalism”. Essentially, as the title would suggest, it implies that the federal and provincial levels of government work together more closely to enact and make policy changes. Unfortunately, this era of collaborative federalism may be ending sooner rather than later – in the past couple decades, the federal and provincial governments have been known to squabble over any and all policy changes in sectors such as health, the environment and fiscal issues. Generally, one would assume that in a regime employing collaborative federalism there would be a certain amount of collaboration. Lately, it seems as though the only time policy changes can take place the federal government is needed to work unilaterally. One area in which collaborative federalism has been nonexistent and unilateral federalism has prevailed and positively affected policy changes is in the Post-Secondary Education (PSE) sector.
Proper school funding is one of the keys to having a successful school. Americans believe that funding is the biggest problem in public schools. School improvements revolve around funding. There needs to be funding not only in the successful schools but also the schools that aren’t doing as well. In documentary, Waiting for Superman, it talks about how smaller class sizes will help students. Funding is what will help the smaller class sizes. State funding mechanisms are subject to intense political and economic scrutiny (Leonard). Studies have shown that funding is inversely related to accreditation levels (Leonard). School funding needs to be increased, but there must be accountability as well.
The article titled 'Teaching Responsibility'; deals with the issue of student preparedness after high school. The article brings up the recent case of Jonathan Govias who is suing his private high school stating that the school did not prepare him for university. The article goes on to give two examples, one in Virginia and one in Ontario of how these types of problems are being dealt with. The editor agrees s that the school system should be held more responsible for its graduates, but makes it clear that lawyers only complicate matters. I believe that Jonathan Govias' case should be heard in a court of law due to the fact that schools have a certain responsibility and if it is not met then something needs to be done about it. I am in total disagreement with the Ontario's school plan to get rid of this problem and am a total fan of the Virginia pilot project, because unlike the Ontario plan they are actually looking to help the students and not their own pockets.
...the pressure of keeping up with other students. Here, they can work at their own pace and figure out a solution that best works for them to understand or solve a problem. One last idea school reform should address in creating an equality of opportunity in public schools would be to set standards and spend more time in the classroom on these important tasks. These standards are put into place to help evaluate one’s progress. It’s important to have some standards in place, but they need to be feasible. To make such standards feasible, the teacher will be able to tailor it so that the standard can be met by the student. Spending a decent amount of time to get students to reach these standards is imperative. Without a sufficient amount of time, students may not be able to grasp and fully understand what is being taught to them resulting in standards not being met.