Bill 242 third reading

When I don't blog for a week, life carries on-- despite an interest in posting on clause-by-clause committee examination of Bill 242, I'm catching up now on the second day of debate on third reading of the bill. I've glanced quickly at the changes, and a few thoughts pop-up.

• Biggest thing that popped up at me was the clause added that spells out school boards can continue to participate in agreements with third parties that run programs in the school, except when it comes to the kids enrolled in the early learning program. Those must still be run by boards, but the addition of the clause should relieve some angst that the ELP was going to chase before- and after-care programs for all school-aged children out of schools. Whether third-party providers would still run those programs without the four- and five-year-olds is a question that still needs an answer.
• Lots of vocabulary changes. Kindergarten and junior kindergarten are classes for example, but extended-day programs are units. Seems to be some turf protection suggesting only teachers teach classes while early childhood educators lead programs comprised of units of kids. Inane, in my opinion.
• No change to the sections mandating boards to be responsible for fee subsidies-- either through delegation with the local municipally based consolidated service manager or by handling them in-house at boards. Boards don't want to touch fee subsidy at all, but apparently this signals the ministries of education, children and youth services, community and social services and municipal affairs and housing aren't speaking well with each other. This should just be regulated to municipalities through this bill -- they're already handling it.

With debate ongoing for third reading, it's likely the bill could carry within a few legislative days. Undoubtedly there'll be a press release.