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You won, get back to work
I’ve already put in a request to talk to Education Minister Nancy Allan about the NDP government’s plans to implement caps on class size.
You thought you’d get time after the election to celebrate? We want to see our tax dollars at work.
Premier Greg Selinger promised to cap class size at 20 students for kindergarten to Grade 3, at an annual cost of $20 million for additional teachers, and a one-time capital cost of $85 million.
I suspect the figure for hiring teachers will turn out to be on the low side; the capital cost, we’ll have to wait and see. The space issue could mean reopening empty classrooms, converting resource space to classrooms, plunking down portables, or adding a wing in a big school already at capacity.
I’m thinking they may introduce the cap in the 2012 kindergarten class, and add a grade each year.
Seven Oaks superintendent Brian O’Leary has said that Ontario applies its cap to 90 per cent of classes, so that the 21st child doesn’t have to be bused to another school.
Meanwhile, Selinger also promised to remove $49 million of education property taxes paid by senior citizens and by farmland.
Best bet is that the details will be in the next provincial budget.
Greg, just tossing ideas out here, eh, but I’m thinking that when two people co-own a house, the taxes should disappear in their entirety the year that the older spouse turns 65, and should go into effect for that entire year, regardless of when the birthday occurs. No vested interest in this, I’m just trying to be helpful.
Moving along......
University of Manitoba president David Barnard congratulated Selinger on winning Tuesday’s election at 8:39 p.m. Tuesday. University of Winnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy waited until 11:24 a.m. today.
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Lower fees or better universities?
1:41 PM 0The Selinger government has made a very clear and conscious decision to put money back into the pockets of homeowners ...
About Nick Martin
Nick Martin is the old bearded guy at the back of the newsroom, the most experienced reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press, having started his career in Ontario in 1971.
He’s been covering education for the Free Press since the spring of 1997, after decades primarily covering municipal politics, including a four-year stint at the Ontario legislature for the London Free Press.
Nick moved to Manitoba in 1988 with his Winnipeg-born wife, who is a professor at the University of Manitoba. They have two kids, both of whom graduated from Grant Park High School: son Chris and daughter Gillian.
Nick has won a national journalism award from the Canadian Association of University Teachers, two Manitoba Human Rights Journalism awards, and the Ontario Reporters Association investigative award.
Nick is a long-distance runner, having finished and survived 18 marathons and 15 half-marathons and 30-kilometre races, and having (barely) survived 10 years as an outdoor and indoor soccer coach.
Nick became a soccer referee in 2007, delighting in his 60s in outrunning 16-year-olds and keeping his distance from obstreperous coaches and parents.
Nick and his wife have discovered a mutual love for kayaking at their Whiteshell cottage, and are both regulars at the Reh-Fit Centre. They hold season tickets to both the Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Warehouse, and as empty nesters, have rediscovered the joys of an active winter vacation.
A native of Jarrow-on-Tyne, England, Nick is a member of the Toon Army as a Newcastle United supporter, and a proud citizen of Leafs Nation.
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