Story 2: Emilia

Email from the new Minister of Education, Mark McMoneymath, a former PPO vice-president to PPO members

My first day in my new role as your Minister of Education, I carry PPO in my heart forever

To the remaining members of the PPO,

I hope this email finds all of our members, both new and old, well. I have successfully been elected as the new minister of education. Today is the start of our new world. I will fulfill our dreams and meet the demands of the Educational Freedom act once and for all.

I am thrilled to share the plans that I will be putting into action as soon as this upcoming school year. Our community will see intense shifts, for the better, and I am confident that these shifts will carry our children, our students, to new academic heights. Privatization is the future, our future, and our future is bright and finally, completely in our hands.

We inherited a school system in the Jane and Finch community that was sick. I myself remember seeing my children come home from school each day in tears from the relentless infestation of bullies. Their mental health suffered, their grades suffered, and their futures were at risk. Taking my kids out of the public school system was the best decision I ever made, I just wish I had done it sooner, I wish it was my choice and my responsibility sooner. I wish it was more in my control. My daughter Amanda is now the lead heart surgeon at Sick Kids hospital. My son Stanley, he didn’t get that chance, the system was what caused me to lose him, it was what caused him to lose himself. Our children are our greatest investments, so to lose them before they start producing amazing results as involved citizens, as future parents, as contributors to our economy and progress is the greatest tragedy of all. I will ensure another parent does not lose their say in their child's future.

Privatization also means parents can finally select schools with the same values as their family. I know many of you have expressed over the years that you hardly recognize your own children when they come home from school as the years go by. The public school system created such an isolated environment for our kids. The teachers, who should have been building bridges for us to connect with our kids, instead created “safe spaces” for them and labelled us, their parents, the ones who gave them life, as the enemy. These systems turned our children against each other and against us. Now we will finally get to work with administrators and teachers that are directly paid by us as parents and therefore seek to inform and please us as clients.

Finally, privatization means knowing directly what money is going to our children's education. No longer will we be taxed to fund an educational system that disproportionately hands out money to schools that our children don’t even go to. Why should the largest, most centralized school in a city have a funded robotics team and why am I paying for it when I live on the border and cannot even enroll my kid there? We will finally have the freedom to pay for our children and allow them access into these amazing programs! Now, the money that would be going to “education” will be back in your pocket and you will be able to spend that money for your child’s future how you please.

Also I would love to receive feedback on my immediate plans so please see the list attached below and reach out with suggestions!

Cheers to the future!

Your esteemed colleague,

Mark McMoneymath

Immediate courses of action for the education system

• Enacting the Educational freedom act as officially recognized legislation: Signing and stamping the papers as we speak

• Dissolving the Public school system committees within the ministry of education: These government employees will be offered seats on other open committees

• Teacher employment transitions: Immediate Dismissal of 50% of all public employees, with severance packages, and further transition of the remaining 50% over a longer term to ensure remaining existing students age out effectively

• Public Asset Liquidation: Listing any vacated school buildings on the market to commercial and industrial investors. This money will go to fund the development of new private school programs and increase capacity for these institutions. The old schools will be converted into excellent new commercial spaces for the community to benefit from.

• Media Campaign: Privatization can sound "scary" and "evil" to community members forced to endure within the public school system but these misconceptions and beliefs spread due to false information. We will partner with local celebrities, television channels, and news outlets to create public service announcements that speak about fake news and inform people about the wonders and amazing new opportunities privatization of our system will have for everyone!