Upside Down

Two things caught my attention this week past. First, Mondrian’s “painting” New York City I has been hanging upside down for over seventy-five years, and nobody noticed until now. And the second, not unrelated, is the CUPE strike in Ontario.

To be fair to Mondrian and the critics, the “painting” is actually just a whole bunch of coloured tape stretched horizontally and vertically over white canvas (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Piet_Mondriaan%2C_1942_-_New_York_City_I.jpg) , so there really is no top or bottom, or up or down, just whatever the artist says it is. But don’t snicker, some of Mondrian’s work has been auctioned for more than fifty million dollars. Just saying.

So, what’s that have to do with the striking school support workers? Well, ditto, there is no clear up or down, just whatever the parties say it is.

A few things are clear enough, including the fact that we are paying school support workers very little more than they’d make (entry level) at McDonald’s. Nobody really disputes that a single mom can’t raise two kids on a gross salary of under forty thousand bucks a year.

And nobody really disputes that the jobs of many of these school support workers, especially in special needs classes, are harrowing and exhausting. Many of these folks deserve danger pay.

At the same time, we all know where the paycheques come from. They come from tax dollars, yours and mine. You and I don’t like taxes. And every four years or so, we get to vote, and toss out the politicians who raised our taxes. So, do you want to be that guy?

Now, of course, our politicians can’t come out and say, “Listen, we’re going to underpay these teachers’ assistants so we can keep your tax bill down.” So, what they have to say is, “This is about the kids. We are not going to allow these union thugs to shut down the schools and destroy the lives of Ontario’s students!” Which is BS.

To be fair to Doug Ford and his Tories, he’s not doing or saying a single thing differently than did his Liberal or New Democrat predecessors. If you’re running a government, it’s a given you’re going to be weasley about what you’re doing with voters’ money. It’s kind of like a meat-packing plant– everybody likes the product, but nobody wants to know what goes on in there.

Why the whole thing is upside down is that we are not being honest about a critical truth regarding schools. It’s this: educating kids is only one of their two essential roles.

Our schools are also in the daycare business. Our economy depends on it. Shut down the schools and millions of parents have to stay home to look after the kids– for two-parent families a crisis, for single-parent families, an existential catastrophe.

For the long-term good of society, we need our schools to be there to educate our successors. But right here and right now, today, we need somewhere to park the kids. School daycare is as essential to our economy as railways, electrical grids, and banking.

Let’s be honest. The fuss isn’t about education, it’s about daycare, and it’s about the next election.

Mondrian’s painting can hang upside down for three quarters of a century, and really, who cares? But until we begin to address how our society and our economy really works, and how we fairly compensate all the essential players who make daily life possible, we’re hanging the picture of life upside down.

When a non-essential hockey player makes more in an hour than an essential teacher’s aide makes in a year, more than a painting is upside down.