{"id":648,"date":"2014-10-08T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2014\/10\/08\/invitation-to-education-minister\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:40:53","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:40:53","slug":"invitation-to-education-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/10\/08\/invitation-to-education-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Invitation to Education Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Tentacles of Bureaucracy\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

By Joel Ceausu<\/b>
www.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve Mitchell has a message for Quebec Education Minister Yves Bolduc. <\/p>\n

\u201cCome on down,\u201d said the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School commissioner, after news that the Commission scolaire de Montr\u00e9al<\/i> and the Commission scolaire des Patriotes <\/i>are to be audited by Quebec\u2019s Education Ministry, intent on discovering their ability to make prescribed cuts. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Bolduc is] tossing the word \u2018audit\u2019 around like it\u2019s some sort of weapon,\u201d Mitchell wrote on his blog www.avoteforthefuture.ca<\/a>. \u201cI encourage the Minister to audit our books. I am confident with what we have been told that we have no further fat to cut. I would ask one thing though\u2014can we please audit the MELS (Education ministry) itself?\u201d <\/p>\n

Running for re-election on Nov. 2, the Rosemere resident and vice-chair of the board\u2019s executive committee told The Suburban<\/i> that \u201cIf he wants to audit it, he should go ahead. But at the same time, let\u2019s audit his operations, because there\u2019s a whole ton of money sitting there where the real waste is. If you look at the ministry\u2019s entire budget, and its allocations per student, which must cover guidance counsellors, maintenance of buildings, everything, we\u2019re running about a 4.5 per cent administrative cost.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s all the money? There\u2019s about a billion dollars sitting in the tentacles of the bureaucracy in Quebec. I don\u2019t hear anybody talking about auditing that.\u201d <\/p>\n

While many observers feel that this may be the last school board election in Quebec, at least in their current form, Mitchell said it does not change the simple fact that \u201cgovernance still matters, whether or not we have school boards. You can change their name or set up regional centers or whatever, but the same things still need to be done. There has to be accountability, somebody representing you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell said the first task at hand for him is school taxation\u2014the famously unfair Quebec system that charges more taxes for those with kids in English schools than in French. After that, it\u2019s true transparency.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted us to be a model of transparency with real debate, no more in-camera decisions. I\u2019d love for us to be open, and out there ready to accept real criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell has a challenge for other candidates, particularly incumbents:<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cWhat have you done in the last few years? And I don\u2019t mean chairing a meeting or raising your hand to ask a question. What have you actually brought to the table? I think I\u2019ve done a good job, and I have a list of things to stand on that I did to improve this board and better serve our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell said that while it\u2019s great that newcomers are presenting themselves in the election, he feels that with the existential threat hovering over school boards these days, boards are going to have to act fast to prove their mettle.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cWe may not have so much time for a learning curve. This is so much more than popularity contest, but unfortunately it\u2019s often what it comes down to.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n

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\u2018Tentacles of Bureaucracy\u2019 By Joel Ceausuwww.thesuburban.com Steve Mitchell has a message for Quebec Education Minister Yves Bolduc. \u201cCome on down,\u201d said the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School commissioner, after news that the Commission scolaire de Montr\u00e9al and the Commission scolaire des Patriotes are to be audited by Quebec\u2019s Education Ministry, intent on discovering their ability to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nInvitation to Education Minister - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2014\/10\/08\/invitation-to-education-minister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Invitation to Education Minister - 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