PUBLIC BACKS TEACHERS
By Kirk Winter
A new Environics Research poll commissioned by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation indicates strong support for teachers in their battle against the provincial government.
Environics, one of the oldest and best respected polling firms in Canada, interviewed 1,200 Ontarians between October 18 and October 25. The poll went a further step to ensure that all regions of Ontario were fairly represented, and that 500 of the respondents were parents of children enrolled in the publicy funded high school system.
The Environics data certainly indicates a disconnect between the Ford government and the majority of Ontarians on education and educational policy.
The first key question posed asked people if the government is pursuing the right direction with its current educational policies. On average, 56 percent of those polled disagreed with the direction the provincial government is taking while approximately 24 percent agreed with the educational policy of the Ford regime.
Respondents were then asked why Ford is on this wrong track and five answers were commonly shared:
Cuts will negatively impact students – 46 percent
Classroom sizes are already too big – 28 percent
Reducing the number of teachers impacts the quality of education – 20 percent
Doug Ford knows nothing about education – 12 percent
Cuts to funding for Special Needs students – 11 percent
The next question focused on the negative impacts that Conservative decisions are having on Ontario residents. Sixty-three percent said the Ford education policies are having a very or somewhat negative impact on either them or their extended family.
When asked about the impact that Conservative policies are having on provincial employees, 71 percent reported that this impact is having a very or somewhat negative impact on teachers.
Fifty-eight percent of those polled believe the Ford government’s motivations in the teachers’ negotiations are almost exclusively to pick a fight with the teachers’ unions, and 84 percent of those who responded oppose picking a fight with educators.
On issues that are currently being negotiated with the province, 71 percent of respondents favour teachers receiving a cost of living raise, with 63 percent supporting a permanent clause in teacher’s contracts guaranteeing education workers COLA moving forward.
Only 28 percent of those polled support an increase in class sizes from 22:1 to 28:1. Twenty-six percent favour the government plan for students to take as many as four full credits on line.
When asked about increased class sizes, those polled spoke very strongly against the Ford inspired proposal. Seventy-nine percent were concerned about a lack of individual attention in larger classes, 78 percent were upset about the possibilities of fewer course offerings and electives, and 74 percent expressed concerns about 1 in 4 secondary teachers losing their jobs once these much larger class sizes became the norm.
Conservatives close the Premier, speaking on the conditions of anonymity, say that the Premier has looked at these numbers very carefully, and surprisingly has not dismissed them out of hand as some kind of union propaganda. The fact that the provincial Conservatives have also contracted Environics to do some of their in-house polling gives their research credibility in Conservative circles. Those same Conservatives have cautioned the Premier that Environics is generally viewed as the gold standard in polling and that has made the Premier circumspect in his public pronouncements about the poll.
One Conservative insider shared that Ford’s father, a Harris era Tory, thought that Premier Harris badly overplayed his hand in dealings with teachers twenty plus years ago, and lost the war of public opinion by making the teacher “martyrs”.
Harris-era parents were asked who they trusted most with the best interests of their children, and by a two to one margin those same parents chose their children’s teachers.
These recently released polling numbers seem to indicate that the Conservatives are taking a huge risk politically by intentionally inciting conflict with Ontario’s teachers. Only time will tell what kind of labour calamity this will lead to and what impact it will have on the re-electability of the Ford Conservatives.