The purpose of public education is to prepare children for adult life after high school. Its aim is to give them the tools they need to live a happy, healthy, productive life... and this is not happening. Our education system is failing our kids. Our kids are not adequately prepared for going out into the “real” world whether they be going directly into the work force or into post-secondary school studies. Their literacy and math skills have plummeted especially over the past decade, mental and physical health issues are on the rise and bullying is increasing. This will have negative affects on everyone, whether you have kids in the school system or not. In our own back yard there are major problems. All of the public schools in our area are well below the provincial standard and have languished there with little or no improvement over the past few years. This includes: Adjala Central Public School Angus Morrison Elementary School Baxter Central Public School Pine River Elementary School Tosorontio Central Public School Nottawasaga Pines Secondary School Do you think your child would do better in a school that on average is below the provincial standard or one that is above? Where do you want your child to go to school? If you are a tax payer and don't have kids on the school system - do you want to be paying for a service that is substandard? We need to fix this problem. The good news is there are solutions to this problem that exist today and I intend on getting them implemented into our schools. As your School Trustee my goals are: 1) To have every public school in Adjala-Tosorontio-Essa at or above the 3.0 provincial standard within 4 years. 2) To reduce the percentage of students classified as Special Education from the over 30% that is there now for most schools in the area to under 10% 3) Do a thorough review of spending and make sure we are getting the best value for our dollar and explore new revenue streams to help reduce the school taxes. On October 27th vote Wayne Clements for School Trustee.