DOES ANYONE ELSE SMELL SOMETHING FUNNY?

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this article titled "Region's public school trustees to put expenses online". Jeff Outhit of the Record staff is dutifully reporting attempts to make trustee expenses clearer and more public on a timely basis. Mike Ramsey is the current leader in trustee expenses at $23,948 for conferences in Toronto, Thunder Bay and california over the last four years. While the reporting on expenses will be clearer and more timely there appears to be no attempt to either reduce expenses or the number of conferences etc.. I find the usual platitudes from trustees about how these out of town and even out of country conferences make them better trustees a little thin. My interpretation is that they are little more than taxpayer funded junkets and perks for trustees who overall do little or nothing to benefit children, parents and education in general. Most of the trustees are there simply to hold down a chair and protect the staus quo, which means protecting school board staff and union personnel from any attempt to lessen their influence and power over the system. This includes resisting any initiatives which would reduce inflated salaries and perks.