Latest / Kvetch & Release / 610 CKTB | Private Equity in the Pencil Case: How Queen’s Park Exported Ontario’s Classroom Dollars

Transcript

610 CKTB | Private Equity in the Pencil Case: How Queen’s Park Exported Ontario’s Classroom Dollars · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's time for Litkey's Gotta Take. Good morning, John.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Gene.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about Ford's brand new $ 750
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a year teacher supply allowance. And this is a classic
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: example of everything going wrong when it didn't have to. So, John,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: on paper, $ 750 for teachers to buy classroom supplies is
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Sounds like a win, like a great idea. So why
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: are teachers complaining on social media and saying the deal
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: is not as was originally presented?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Hi, Gene. Yeah, I mean, look, $ 750 for teachers to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: buy these classroom supplies, it would be great. The problem is,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: is that the moment that teachers logged on to the
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: portal on day one, the Staples portal, Staples received the
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: contract for this, they realized that their purchasing power was
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: completely gutted by markups. Now, $ 750 sounds great for a
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: back-to-school photo op, but in reality, what teachers were seeing
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: when they first logged on Cases of paper that school
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: boards would previously buy for $ 50 going to $ 85. Duo
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: tangs that cost 38 cents to the public going up
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: to almost a dollar. Notebook packs doubling in price overnight. So,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you know, when you saw that the allowance buys almost
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: half as much as what it would if you just
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: actually had cold hard cash, that's not a frontline investment. That's,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: you know, that's a slap in the face.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: It's worse than I thought. Oh, it gets worse, too, James. Well,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the Ontario government is handing out $ 60 million for this program.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Isn't this brand new money going straight to the front line?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, Gene, I've got three shells for you, and I'm
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: going to put the ball underneath one of them, okay?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: We're going to play budget shell game.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: School board guidelines confirm that out of $ 750 allowance that's coming,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: $ 300 is being pulled directly out of existing school board funding.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: That's 40% of recycled money. I mean, so this is
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a gift in the sense that they're actually clawing back
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: from local school board budgets as well. The Ford government
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: took $ 300 of existing board funds, stripped away local bulk
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: buying power, handed the whole pot to a single American-owned
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: private equity giant, and slapped a brand new cash label
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: on it. And then worst of all, I actually was
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: reading one teacher on social media who said that she
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: doesn't have a homeroom class. She's a music teacher, and
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: while she used to receive $ 300 a year for supplies...
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Now she's not receiving any of that because of that clawback.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: So she's saying, how am I supposed to pay for
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the papers and the notebooks and everything I need for
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: my classroom as well? So this is a, you know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: it's a political sleight of hand. We're robbing Peter to
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: pay Paul, but taking a victory lap in front of
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: the cameras.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, when I heard of this, I was
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: thinking giving teachers direct control over their classroom budget. It
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: really sounded like a good idea in principle, no pun intended.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I think so as well, too, 100%. Customized spending at
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the classroom level does make total sense. A math teacher
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: doesn't need to buy world maps, a phys ed teacher
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: doesn't need beakers, and a science teacher doesn't need basketballs,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: and I could keep going. Giving teachers the autonomy to
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: tailor the spending directly to their curriculums is smart, pragmatic policy,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: but nobody was asking for that autonomy to be funded
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: by cannibalizing existing school board budgets and locking teachers into
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: a single corporate portal of an American-owned corporation with zero
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: price checks. And, you know, we'll talk a bit about
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the mistakes that are going to be made and how
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: they are rectified. But at the end of the day,
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: you know, give teachers control. Yes, force them into a
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: corporate monopoly. I think that this is where the policy collapses.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we have to, at this point, give
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: the minister a great big, you know what, oh, muffin.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: You know, the minister's come out and has said teachers
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: are just missing the list of 200 essential items offered
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: at huge discounts and that the portal isn't meant to
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: be perfect on day one. Now, is that a fair
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: defense or is he just spinning out a botched rollout?
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take botched rollout for 500, Alex.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, this is a car that's just spinning its wheels
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: right now. This is linguistic gymnastics. The minister stands up
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: there and tells us teachers simply missed seeing the 200
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: discounted items.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Great.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: But there's also 3,000 items in that catalog. So what
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: about the other 2,800 items that are marked up 250
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to 300 percent higher than standard public retail? And the
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: fact that Staples had to scramble together on night one
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: to set up an emergency 1-800 number to help match
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: the hotline prices with what they should be proved the
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: deal was rushed out the door without basic procurement safeguards
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: in a contract. How could this be allowed to happen?
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: And telling teachers it's not meant to be perfect on
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: day one when kids are about to be sitting at
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: desks potentially without the proper supplies that they need is
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: not a defense. It's an admission of gross administrative incompetence.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Well, what about local? Why are we funneling $ 66 million
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: into a single American-owned equity giant?
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the $ 66 million question. We endlessly hear Premier
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Ford preach about buy Ontario and support local Canadian enterprises,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: but when it comes to this massive contract of $ 66 million,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: where does the government go? Well, they're handing the keys
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: to Staples, a company owned by a massive American private
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: equity firm. Instead of letting $ 750 per teacher circulate through
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: local businesses, however they see fit, and Canadian suppliers, profits
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: from Ontario tax dollars are going to be routed to
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: a U.S. megacorp. Where is the local economic common sense
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: in that? And they say that they did it because
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: it made sense regionally because of the footprint that Staples has.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: But the teachers are having to go onto the computer
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: to buy the stuff, Gene. So what does the footprint matter?
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: All right, just about out of time, John. Bottom line here,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: teachers are back in school next Tuesday. Students are back
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: in the classrooms. The portal is live. Where does this
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: leave things?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it leaves us with a system where taxpayers pay more,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: teachers are getting less. A foreign-owned private equity firm gets
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: a guaranteed captive market. And when teachers should be spending
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: time setting up their lesson plans and getting their classrooms ready,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: they're having to play administrative prices-right detective price-matching games to
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: find out how much should things cost. Am I getting
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: the best deal? And it's a load of paperwork for
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: them that they have to do on top of what
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: their jobs already are. And I imagine when it comes
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: time for the next round of negotiations with the union,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: they're going to bring up this as a sticking point going,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: look at all the new work that we have to do.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: You know, this reminds me of that incredible quote from
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan when he was talking about the worst sentence
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: you can hear, and that is, Hi, I'm from the government,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: and I'm here to help you.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: I'm here to help. Run the other way.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, yikes. Great take, my friend.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Gene.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Talk to you tomorrow. Yep, 9.15. There he goes, John Litke.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Litke's got a take.