Betsy DeVos planned a study visit to Ontario. Canadian Educators were appalled. They don’t like her privatization ideology any more than American Educators.
She canceled. A last minute “scheduling conflict.” Why go where they don’t want you?
“There had been a reluctance among public-school officials in Ontario to welcome Ms. DeVos, a polarizing figure who many in education circles see as the centre of a movement to use public dollars to pay for tuition at private and religious schools. Ms. DeVos has been accused by the president of the American Federation of Teachers as the “most anti-public education secretary of education ever” and of wanting to “destabilize and privatize” public schools.
“It remained unclear which schools she would be visiting. Several school boards contacted by The Globe and Mail, including in Toronto, York, Peel and Dufferin, said she was not visiting their schools.
“Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said he was pleased to learn that Ms. DeVos was not coming to Ontario.
“After The Globe first reported on her visit earlier this week, Mr. Bischof said in a statement that it was “alarming” the provincial government would allow her to tour Ontario schools.
“I couldn’t be more pleased that it’s cancelled,” he said on Wednesday. “She simply attracts attention to ideas that are of no value in the Ontario education system.”
“Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, added: “If you support an inclusive, equitable, not-for-profit, publicly funded public education system, this is good news.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Ms. DeVos has been accused by the president of the American Federation of Teachers as the “most anti-public education secretary of education ever” and of wanting to “destabilize and privatize” public schools.”
Not really. Only the most openly anti-public education. It would be hard to be more actually anti-public education than Duncan and King were; they just had the good sense to be quieter about it.
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Right. They had the good sense to pretend. She doesn’t give a damn.
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“Good cents”
Arne had cents
And billions at that
To not make offense
By tipping his hat
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I agree, and there were others before Duncan and King.
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Smart Canadians. Too bad the USA thinks education at the 1-12 bracket is for making as much money as possible for the POS 1% ers and not the education of the masses with No accountability as to where the money is spent.
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I have wondered what would have happened if we had never had the American Revolution.
Whatever else is true, at a minimum, we’d probably all be much smarter Canadians.
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We are very happy in Ontario that BDV canceled her visit. Only the province of Alberta in Canada have charters and they are capped. Canada does support private schools with up to 1/2 tuition in some provinces and a full legacy Roman Catholic system in Ontario that dates back to out founding as a nation. 95% of Canadian children are in public schools.
Nevertheless we really don’t want BDV type reform here.
The Ontario Conservative Party proposed full support for religious schools and was badly defeated as a direct result. They have been quiet since then.
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DeVos is a false prophet, and I think Canadians understand DeVos and her free market choice message is a lot of rhetoric, and not much substance. About 33% percent of Canadians belong to unions while in the US current union membership is under 12% and will probably fall even more after the Supreme Court is done delivering yet another blow to union membership. While some union membership decline is from globalization, ALEC and other such conservative groups have been actively working to destroy unions in the US.
Canadians are not interested in hearing about “big, bad government” as their government has been doing a much better job to serve its citizens. While Canadian salaries are only slightly higher, they also reap the benefits of universal healthcare and free college tuition. These are two costly expenses that are part of the free market fantasy that is holding back the middle class in America. Canada looks for ways to support the middle class while in the US so called representatives collude the wealthy and corporations to exploit the middle class as well as the poor.
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“False Prophets”
Prophets are false
But profits are real
Strong is the pulse
Of charter school deal
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Most Americans are unaware of these facts about Ontario: The province has FOUR tax supported school systems — English public, French Public, English Catholic, French Catholic. (Protestant and Jewish schools get no public funds.) Recent polls show that a majority of Ontarians would like to cut back to just English and French public schools, but the politicians just sit on their hands. Going to public support of public schools only would save Ontario taxpayers millions of dollars year.
Other facts about Canada. Quebec ended its support of church operated schools. In the 1990s Newfoundland ended its system of 5 tax supported church schools — with zero public schools — and went to all public schools, strongly supported by the vast major ity of taxpayers.
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What’s an Ontario?
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Ontario the province with 40% of Canadian population. The one with Toronto in it.
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Thanks.
That helps.
But what’s a Toronto?
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The Canadian province of Alberta, has long been a supporter of school choice,home-schooling, and other non-public school choices. See
http://www.heritage.org/education/report/school-choice-canada-lessons-america
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Alberta has charters but they are capped.
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On a related topic, English teachers have never supported placing a comma between subject and verb.
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