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Finally, Minister Ecker announced yet again her governâ€" ment‘s teacherâ€"testing scheme for both prospective and practising teachers. Although a number of U.S. states have tests for prospective teachers, Ontario would stand alone in north America by demandâ€" ing cyclical recertification for pracâ€" tising teachers. Each of these announcements was designed to get media attention, sadly none of the announcements deals with critâ€" ical educational issues. With this current media strategy and apparâ€" ent lack of support for the teaching profession, is it any wonder that over 60 per cent of Ontario school No one would argue that every measure must be taken to ensure the safety and wellâ€"being of all stuâ€" dents. However, to be the sole jurisâ€" diction in this country demanding that teachers pay some $50 for a criminal check just for the sake of making headlines is clearly repreâ€" hensible. This measure fails to address the issue of safe schools and the multiplicity of issues regarding the handling of these criminal checks for the 128,000 teachers of Ontario. More recently, Minister Janet Ecker came before the media announcing that all Ontario teachers â€" even those who have been part of the profession for years â€" must undergo a mandatoâ€" ry criminal check. To add insult to injury, teachers will have to pay for this investigation. ast week, newspaper headlines I_chreamed about the results of he Grade 10 pilot program on literacy as a result of leaks made by Ontario Ministry of Education offiâ€" cials. This illâ€"conceived announceâ€" ment neglected to address the legitâ€" imacy and causes of the results, and more importantly, ways by which the Ministry of Education will assume its responsibility to ensure all students in the province of Ontario succeed. Ontario Ministry of Education just after headlines in latest attack on teachers You said it QUESTION DO YOU THINK SPRING HAS FINALLY SPRUNG? For a realistic demonstration of what life with a disability is like Mayor Lynne Woolstencroft should have been sitting on the sidewalk outside of Krebs Restaurant wearing her socks on her hands while she ate. It is great that Waterloo‘s new mayor is eager to increase the pubâ€" lic‘s awareness to factors faced by those with disabilities. Easter Seal‘s efforts to assist young people overâ€" come mobility bartiers is incredibly important. We are, however, conâ€" t tax time, our council seems Ajo like to see how deep the axpayers‘ pockets are. With the increase in general costs of livâ€" ing, council should cut ambitious and special interest group projects. They overestimate taxes at a threeâ€" to fourâ€"perâ€"cent increase, then to appear hardâ€"cutting they announce a oneâ€" to twoâ€"perâ€"cent increase and they still end up with over a million and a half surplus. With the new assessment, the Carl Zarn city will still get hundreds of thouâ€" Water All barriers must be considered With garbage and water no longer handled by the city, why the increase at all? Re: March 7, 2001 edition, Waterloo mayor gets a taste of chalâ€" lenges faced by those with physical disabilities. There should be tax cuts boards have difficulty retaining their younger teachers? This response from school boards, 20 per cent above the national average and secâ€" ond only to the Northwest Territories, does not bode well as we face a severe teaching shortage both here and abroad. Governments must assume their fundamental responsibility to proâ€" vide adequate support for a strong public education system that will allow all students to succeed. in m o "I hope so. I think it is. I‘m pretty sick of winter." "Probably not. Feels to good to be true." Fedor Kouznetsov Craig Macintosh ) THE CHRONICLI COMMENT cerned that lynne Woolstencroft‘s depiction of life with a disability is reduced to simply wearing socks on one‘s hands. There are many other bartiers that people with disabilities encounter that require increased awareness in this city. For example, a person in a wheelchair would not be able to eat at Krebs because it is not a wheelchair accessible restauâ€" rant. In an attempt to increase the public‘s awareness to disability issues, all possible barriers must be considered. sands of dollars more to work with. Under this new assessment I pay $18 for the year. Then we still have the school board and region‘s porâ€" tions to be added. If there is surplus money for staff bonuses, there should be money for tax cuts. The millennium project was to carty itself through user fees. Now, it may cost taxpayers up to $30 a year. With these additional tax burâ€" dens, how do you think the oldsters, anyone on fixed incomes and even general taxâ€"payers are to cope? Carl Zarnke, Waterloo Teachers are the first to admit they need the adequate resources and professional growth opportunities to meet the increasing demands placed upon them. It is high time for this Ontario government to develop strategies to improve public education in a meaningful way rather than pursuing a politically motivated soundbite or headline. Marilies Rettig president, Canadian Teachers‘ Federation Cindy Steffy and Don Ziegler, Waterloo "I hope so. The foreâ€" casts say that you‘ll be able to ski until the end of April, but I hope that‘s not the case." "I think it‘s just teasing us, but I‘m enjoying it." Julie Harrigan Vil Louangxay Americans are not the only ones questioning the move towards private prisons (in fact, the Harris government is embracing the idea at the same time that nearly everyone else is abandoning or rejecting it). The minister for corrections in New Zealand has rejected proposals to build private jails there. "There has been an experiment overseas â€" driven by ideology â€" to introduce private prisons and it hasn‘t worked. The ideolâ€" ogyâ€"driven belief that... private is better is not suited to our prisâ€" ons, and this government won‘t let New Zealanders become guinea pigs for an experiment here." British criminologist Sir Leon Radzinowicz adds that "in a democracy grounded on the rule of law and public accountability... it is one thing for private companies to provide services for the prison system but it is an altogether different matter for bodies whose motivation is priâ€" marily commercial to have coercive power over prisoners." American reaction against the abuses, and the very principle of private prisons is grpwing. The Public Safety Act, currently before the U.S. Congress, would prohibit the federal Bureau of Prisons from using private prisons, and it would bar states from using federal dollars to house inmates in such facilities. Elsewhere, a new prison in Stewart County, Georgia has no prisâ€" oners. "This was just a speculative project; we just don‘t need the beds right now," said Georgia‘s corrections commissioner. Beyond these practical concerns, there is a more serious philosophical problem with private prisons. They create a powâ€" erful interest group with a built in financial incentive to crimiâ€" nalize more activities, to jail more offenders, and avoid rehabilâ€" itating offenders. In addition, as pointed out in the Mother Jones article, "not since slavery has an entire American industry derived its profits exclusively from depriving human beings of their freedom â€" not, at least, until a handful of corporations and Wall Street investors realized they could make millions from what some critics call ‘dungeons for dollars.‘" Private prisons now house an estimated 112,000 prisoners (about six per cent of the U.S. prison population) and CCA owns about 58 per cent of that "market". American researchers have found that escape rates are 32 per cent in private prisons, while assaults against guards are 50 per cent higher. In addition, a U.S. General Accounting Office review of five studies of private prisons and found no "substanâ€" tial evidence" that forâ€"profit institutions save taxpayer dollars. Another report prepared for the attorney general found that "private prisons attempt to save money by cutting back on staffing, security, and medical care." Given this reality, it makes a lot of sense to look at the records of those companies in running their piece of the massive U.S. prison industry. In Youngstown, Ohio, CCA is turning the former steel capital of the midwest into the private prison capital of America â€" and they‘re not doing a very good job of it. Mother Jones magazine reports that "Since it opened the prison in 1997, CCA had repeatedly demonstrated the dangers of allowing busiâ€" nesses to operate prisons for profits. The company staffed the facility with reapr hi guards who had little or no experience | ANOTHER | in corrections â€" and then imported |f VIEW | 1,700 of the most violent inmates from | Washington, DC to fill what was supâ€" . (MMRS3 P ._â€" posed to be a medium:â€" security prison. ‘ &,‘, *% CCA left metal equipment everywhere, e 42 > 4 which the prisoners quickly stripped â€" MR 1’& d . and fashioned into weapons. During P oS the first year alone, 20 prisoners were ‘ §°8 C * | stabbed and two were murdered. The || l * 5 | inexperienced staff resorted to tear gas &1 | and humiliation to keep order. Sick and i injured inmates received inadequate SCOrT medical treatment. "Knowing what I | PlATkOWSK] know now," Youngstown Mayor George . || McKelvey later told reporters, "I would never have allowed CCA to build a prison here." What is most disturbing about the plans, however, is the fact that the Penetanguishine jail is going to be run by a private, forâ€" profit company when it opens in June. That company is most likely to be one of two American giants â€" Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) or Wackenhut. The Toronto Sun reported in February that "Robert Crawford of First Nations Protective Services had warned union officials that he had to affiliate with a U.S. company to meet Ontario‘s bid requireâ€" ments. Crawford ‘told us no Canadian company is qualified," said Don Ford of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents Ontario‘s 6,000 corrections workers. ‘The botâ€" tom line is a foreign company will be running this jail.‘ Ford his month, Ontario is opening the first of three "superâ€" I jails" in Milton. Others in Lindsay and Penetanguishine are slated to follow. There‘s plenty of reasons to question the wisdom of closing down relatively small local facilities in favour of massive warehouses located in centres that may be far away from prisoners‘ families and social supports. Profiting from punishment ANOTHER | V ue e 4. U e | 1*’“‘ ~ s1 § |