[Northern Light]

McGuinty's Successes con't - Education

So did our current government score here?

Let's see.

High School Graduation Rate 68% when he was elected, 81% this year.

Really not bad (yes I know I'm about to hear about 'standards' ....I'll get there.

How about percentage of students going on to post-secondary education? That's also up significantly though I don't recall the exact numbers, it was more than a 10% and puts Ontario well ahead of most U.S. States and other provinces.

So, what about that concern that perhaps more students are passing because 'standards' were lowered?

In fact there is no real evidence to support this with regard to the curriculum in general. There is evidence that the 'standardized tests' were amended in a way that might be construed as lowering certain standards....

So how might we fairly evaluate 'standards'? The obvious answer would be to refer to international benchmarks on tests used throughout the OECD to compare how Ontario's students fared in Literacy and Numeracy with those of the U.S., France, Japan etc.

The answer, by the way, is quite well. Indeed Ontario's relative scores are up, not down, and we place in the top 10 jurisdictions consistently.

With respect to competing parties, I'm un-aware of any plan to materially raise academic standards or to make tuitions any more affordable. I am happy to stand corrected, but if not, what the others offer amounts to 'status quo' which is hardly a great argument for change.

Finally, we have the 'early years' program. ie. full day Kindergarten.

Now, you can like or dislike the idea, we can quibble about implementation or costs.

But it has been recommened by Royal Commission on education, and by reports commissioned for ALL Three leading parties. Nor has any party, including Mr. Hudak come out and opposed it. So again, if change is the argument, I'm not sure who the vehicle for it would be.

Healthcare

Finally, among major issues, Health.

So let's see, wait times are down in every major category, most to within medically acceptable ranges.

Ontario's wait times are now the least in Canada.

Considerable renewal in Hospitals has taken hold (new Women's College, new Humber River Regional, New Wing at Toronto General etc. etc.)

For the first time in Ontario, children of low income families (not on welfare) now have access to dental care, including preventive care.

The old rule was kids under 13, urgent care only. Now its 18 and includes preventive care.

A huge array of vaccinations are now free, saving the system money in the long term.

While, E-health was mishandled, it was first bungled by the Harris Gov't who likewise gave out major computer-system related contracts to consultants that proceeded to spend vast sums and get little result.

There is no excuse for it; but it is one of the rare scandals of the current regime, and they do seem to be on track to deliver electronic Health records within the next 2 years or so.

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Of course, they have failings. I'm no fan of the LHINS, I think the idea was good, the execution has been poor, and a mixture of straight-hospital mergers and uploading planning back to the MOH in house would probably save some money and better serve various communities.

They've also been slow on the organ donor issue. And the dental program could use extending to adults as well as a higher income cut off (22k) is a bit modest.

But money doesn't grow on trees, and on balance, I think they're record is sound.

Hudak's argument for ending LHINs is sound, but will not produce mega-savings, as their functions will be assumed by real staff (some new) at either the Ministry or Hospital levels.

In the end, that cause alone is insufficient to malign the current regime or elect another.

***summary in next post**