Are you thinking of voting NDP in Ontario, hoping that would help rejuvenate Ontario's public education system?  You may wish to re-consider.  Nova Scotia's NDP government show the apparent political hypocrisy that the NDP represents.  It is apparent that the NDP is not the "party of Tommy Douglas" anymore, but instead a bunch of power-seekers who seek to serve elites, at the expense of public education and other social spending. Read Kelly Regan's article below. 

It is apparent that Andrea Horwarth does not seek to offer Ontario voters little more than her 'good looks'.  Check our the Ontario NDP's poor package of policy alternatives on their website, and make your own evaluation.

Late last month, Nova Scotia's NDP Minister of Education issued a news release. Ramona Jennex claimed there would be "no layoffs of permanent teachers this year in Nova Scotia."

What she didn't say is that there will be 300 fewer teachers in public school classrooms come this fall. The minister has refused to call the reduction of teaching and teaching assistant positions "cuts" - but that's exactly what they are.

And the minister's op-ed conveniently avoided mentioning the inconvenient truth that there are teaching positions that no longer exist because of the cuts to public school funding.

Cuts to the number of teaching assistant positions across the province will have a major impact on the learning environment this fall. Children with learning and/or behavioural challenges will still have those challenges when they start school again in September; this year, however, they won't have the support of their teaching assistants. Their classroom teachers will be torn between meeting their needs and meeting the needs of the rest of the class. (And remember, those teachers will also have to teach the province's untested, unproven replacement for Reading Recovery, because that program and its positions were cut.) This cut will mean problems for all public school students - the ones who need teaching assistants, and the ones who don't - because every classroom will suffer.

Nova Scotia has just cut $35 million from its public education budget, and we remain the province with the second-lowest per-student funding in the country. Our new "plan" to help students who need help with reading has not been subjected to any testing. Does this make sense? We know how important reading is to the future success of our students. Children who cannot read at grade level by grade three are far more likely to drop out of school than those students who can read at grade level. It makes sense to give children who are struggling with this important skill the best tools to help them get up to speed. Instead, the NDP government has decided to experiment. They have no evidence their "plan" works, because none exists. They are simply using our children as guinea pigs.

For businesses looking for future employees, for families considering locating here, for parents and grandparents who have children in the system, the NDP government's refusal to make public education a priority rather than just another budget line is disheartening.

And for the minister to suggest in her news release that she has "put children and learning first" is Orwellian politicalspeak, to say the least.

internet site reference : http://www.halifaxnewsnet.ca/Opinion/2011-07-21/article-2669353/NDP-cuts-will-hurt-public-education--/1