Fighting for fairness for our members and their students (From the President)

ETFO Members are members of a profession that is unparalleled in its capacity to make a  difference in  our  society. ETFO itself has shown time  and time again that it plays a significant role in  improving the  lives of  our members and building stronger communities.

We  are  leaders in  social justice and  equity, taking  the  time  and  the  care  to  support  the more   marginalized members  of  our  society. We exemplify the best of traditional unionism, fighting every step  of  the  way to  ensure our members get the salaries, working conditions, and  respect  that   they  deserve.  We  have  an organization that is compassionate, competent, and forward looking.

I am proud to say that we are now the leading teacher union  in  this country. Thanks to  the support of our members we have done it. It has been  quite a  struggle for  elementary teachers and their union to be recognized as the country’s most dynamic and most effective teacher union. We are about to begin a new journey, Building for Tomorrow … The Next Generation. We have been preparing for this campaign through our Building for Tomorrow initiatives, Campaign 200 and our campaign for occasional teachers, There Is No Substitute for a Substitute Teacher.

We all know that elementary teachers are not treated with the respect that they deserve. Look around your  school. Elementary students don’t receive their fair share of resources and support. Imagine what we could achieve  if our students received fair funding.

For  years  it  has  been  politically expedient for  governments to  condone a  lower level of funding for  elementary students. Parents have tolerated it, either through misunderstanding or Fighting for fairness for our members and their students lack of knowledge. As teachers we can ignore it no longer.

It  is  time  to  begin  the  journey  of  respect for elementary students. Our organization has evolved with a  strong focus  on  equity, social justice, and  gender issues. There  is  no  more fundamental equity challenge than to make right the decades of wrong that have been borne by elementary students and educators.

To begin to make things right, we will educate politicians,  parents,  and  the  broader  public about the contributions that elementary teachers make to the well-being of Ontario’s children and communities. We will speak  out about the gap in funding and the gap in respect that limit the success of early learners. We will  communicate the opportunities that fair funding can bring to the students we teach. You can expect the kind of controversy that always follows a challenge to the status quo.

We must act to end the inequity that has limited the potential of elementary students and placed an unfair burden on elementary teachers. Others have been misguided in condoning this disparity. In the past, we ourselves have felt  somewhat powerless to act, and perhaps even intimidated. Those days have ended for our federation. The school boards and provincial government have been negligent in permitting this injustice to continue. We will not do so. Our  goal, of course, will be to work with the  provincial government and  school  boards in a collegial fashion to  establish a timeline to implement fair funding for elementary schools. If that approach is rebuffed, we will have to take more direct action to support the students we teach.