The Ontario Teachers Federation has issued an Open Letter to the people of Ontario addressing the issue of Bill 160, the Education Quality Improvement Act, and their struggle against it. Entitled "Bill 160 Will Not Improve Education," the Open Letter states that "Bill 160 is about the government giving itself the tools to cut up to $1 billion from classroom education - quickly and quietly - without the slow and messy business of open consultation and discussion. Bill 160 had little or nothing to say about any of the government's reforms. Instead, Bill 160 shifts control over students, teachers and schools from local communities to Cabinet." The teachers say that the government is deliberately trying to create confusion about its proposed reforms so that Bill 160 does not come under public scrutiny and the Open Letter addresses various ways in which the government is doing this. For example, the Harris government is playing on the fact that many parents are unhappy with the quality of education received by students by saying that the teachers are for the status quo. The Open Letter states: "Teachers have always been open to meaningful change. The changes being proposed in Bill 160, however, will not improve education in Ontario." The Open Letter argues, for example, that reducing teachers preparation time will not improve education, as the government claims. It will only achieve the aim of cutting 6,000 to 10,000 teachers from the system. The letter states: "Reducing the number of teachers will reduce the amount of individual contact that teachers can have with their students and the number of programs that can be implemented. Already, vital programs such as junior kindergarten, adult education, science and technology, arts and music have been eliminated or cut back." The Harris government has also been claiming that it wants to take classroom size out of the realm of negotiations between teachers and school boards because the government wants to limit classroom sizes. It is suggesting that teachers have negotiated larger class sizes. The letter states: "Teachers, through the collective bargaining process, have been responsible for the reduction of class size. It is a bargaining goal of all five Affiliates of the Ontario Teachers Federation. Contrary to the government's claim, when allowed to bargain freely on this issue, teachers and school boards have consistently negotiated lower class size. It is only the funding cuts of recent years which have caused class sizes to rise." The Open Letter also addresses other issues on which the government has tried to generate confusion, such as the need for a common curriculum and standardized testing. The teachers ae in support of both, but they again point out that "it is up to the government to provide the financial resources to ensure that the new curriculum is implemented properly." TML DAILY, 10/97 Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo [EMAIL PROTECTED]