…they claim to be protecting Education and Students

 I keep hearing from Teachers’ Unions as they have again become politically active and advocate against the PC’s in this election. It leaves suspicions in the mind of any person who questions the teachers’ motives. A scant three years ago, it was these same teachers who arbitrarily withdrew their services (athletics etc) so as to get their way with the Liberal/NDP caucus in the Ontario legislature and grab large wage increases.  They used our kids as pawns when push came to shove at the bargaining table.

Look, there are several hundred Boards of Education throughout Ontario.  None of them are particularly forthcoming about disclosing financial details pertaining to taxpayers’ funds used.

But, a glimpse behind the veil of secrecy was prepared by the Turner Consulting Group and released for public consumption on January 22, 2013.  One can conclude that the Turner Consulting Group did not perform services to the Peel District School Board pro bono. 

Let’s take a look at one reason why an outside consulting firm was retained by the Peel District School Board in an attempt to rationalize the use of education funding in Ontario.  I suggest that this consultants’ report may be more typical than one would think.

So you think that this report was aimed at improving the quality of your children’s’ education?  Wrong, in fact the report had to do with the Peel District School Board’s hiring practices. The Turner Group’s mandate was to: conduct a review of its hiring and promotion policies and practices to assess the extent to which they are bias-free and support the hiring of employees from diverse communities, backgrounds and identities.

This contract had nothing (zilch) to do with how well our children and grand children are being taught or, for that matter anything to do with quality of education.  It had nothing to do with curriculum or classroom practice. Nope.  The consultants were retained to unearth the fact that favoritism was evident both in hiring practice and promotion (to vice-principal and principal positions) .

No big surprises were contained in the report, unless you have lived with your head in the sand.  It is a gigantic surprise that the various teachers’ federations and unions who have been quite vocal politically were quite silent in an area such as preferential hiring.

Here’s how the Turner Group went about earning an undisclosed consulting fee.  They contacted a total of 3,185 Peel District School Board (the PDSB) employees including about 2,600 teachers.  The rest of the group contacted consisted of high-priced clerical workers. 

What were the conclusions?  The 128 page Consultant’s showed that  staff lack confidence in the ability of the current academic and business hiring processes to ensure hiring based on merit rather than relationships and that many staff expressed their perception that the academic promotion process also has elements which allowed for relationship-based decisions to be made.

Moreover, 47% of those surveyed do not believe the PDSB has placed enough emphasis on hiring teaching staff from diverse backgrounds and 51% do not believe the PDSB has placed enough emphasis on promoting teaching staff from diverse backgrounds.

The demographics contained in the report are similarly not much of a surprise.  You can glean the same results by observing staff arrivals and departures on any work day at the PDSB’s head office on Hurontario Street.  A barometer of the Board’s hiring practice gives the best indication of how minority groups are hired.  53% of the staff is racial minorities (including 49% of being immigrants of various ethno-cultural backgrounds).  Women fare well and represent 72% of the “minority” hirings and promotions. No doing so well are persons with disabilities (35%) and Aboriginal persons.

When we hear teachers unions bleating about suspected cuts to the education system, I suspect that there is plenty of fat to be trimmed before classroom teachers are considered for cut-backs.

I am not convinced that such consulting contracts are unique to the PDSB or that such expenses will improve the learning experience for even one child.  It is way past time that the inner-financial workings of Board of Education be a lot less secretive.  Who’s money is it anyway?