CLASS SIZE SPENDING ATTACKED; ONTARIO WASTING MONEY,
ECONOMIST SAYS
The Toronto Sun
Sun 06 Nov
2005
Page: 9
Section: News
Byline: BY BRETT CLARKSON, TORONTO SUN

Source:

Economist Yvan Guillemette and school trustee David Moen aren't in
the same school of thought when it comes to classroom sizes.

Guillemette criticizes the Ontario government for spending millions to reduce
the number of students per class in elementary schools, and says the money could
be better spent.

He delivered that message yesterday to a conference organized by pro-public
education group People For Education.

The conference, held at York University, was attended by several hundred
parents from across the province.

Some of the audience applauded Guillemette, while parents like Moen -- who is
a school board trustee in the Ottawa area -- derided the young economist for
suggesting smaller class sizes as proposed by the McGuinty government won't make
a difference.

SMALL REDUCTIONS

"We're never talking about going from 60 students down to 10, obviously that
would change everything...we're talking about, at most, reducing class size in
the average classroom by four or five students," Guillemette said.

"So, ask yourself, if there are 25 kids in a classroom, would it really make
a difference if there were four fewer kids? My answer to that would be no."

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced in September that his government will
invest $126 million this year to help reduce class sizes of the earliest grades
to 20 students or less.

Guillemette, who published a report titled "School Class Size: Smaller Isn't
Better" for the C.D. Howe Institute, said more emphasis needs to be put on
offering financial incentives for teachers to excel. Their performance would be
linked to their students' standardized test scores.

Moen said that while that theory may work in the corporate world, capitalist
theories shouldn't be applied to public education.

"He's throwing the old canard that if you introduce the free-market approach
and competition to the delivery of public services, that performance improves,"
Moen said. "It doesn't work."

People For Education chairman Annie Kidder delivered a speech in the morning
that focused on moving forward after the years of disharmony between the Mike
Harris government and educators.

In an interview, Kidder blamed the four-year high school curriculum
introduced in 1999 by the Harris government for contributing to Ontario's
graduation rate, the second-lowest in Canada, behind Alberta.

"We need to be trying to help students succeed, as opposed to setting them up
to fail, and a lot of (the curriculum) did set them up to fail," Kidder said.

Illustration:
• photo of ANNIE KIDDER
• Blames
Harris

Edition: Final
Length: 396 words