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 all political stripes, including long-standing Tories - are hoping their grassroots movement will bring about a groundswell of support. The full-page ad reads, in part: ``Large classes. Fewer special education classes. Reduced teaching library staff. Fewer arts programs . . . Does this sound like your school?'''' The first one appears in today''s Star. The funding formula is not research meeting needs teaching of kids in Toronto, or anywhere,'''' said Joanne Pauli, speaking on behalf of the newly formed Friends of Public She has three children, one at North Toronto Collegiate. Most of the parents have some connection to the collegiate; the idea for the ad campaign came out of a parent council meeting. The one-size-fits-all formula isn''t really fitting research anyone at all,'''' Pauli said. In 1998, the provincial government seized control of education spending, teaching taking away individual boards'' ability to raise their own taxes depending on their needs. It now spends $13.4 billion a year. In that year, which was some 40 years after the start of a massive effort by reformers research to consolidate districts into larger administrative units, there were teaching about 120,000 individual school districts in the U.S. This meant that on average there were only two schools per district. Now, that is really local control. Even now, after consolidation has continued for another 60 years, we still have about 15,000 separate school districts -- each with primary control over financing, staffing, and setting curriculum standards for our schoolsCertainly state governments have taken steps over the years to assert greater control over these matters in K-12 schooling, and even the federal government has made tiny and tentative moves in this direction. But all these efforts have been undertaken in the face of enormous resistance by local communities, research which have vigorously fought to preserve the autonomy teaching of their schools research. the most complete listing of teaching styles on the web
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