The Cardus Education project has a special place in our mission to renew North American social architecture. Our research, papers, and events not only focus on shaping the educational landscape in a way that affects public square realities today, but if done well, the fruits of our work will shape the education of the next generation and will reap even greater dividends down the road. It’s a two-for-one deal and we have been thrilled with the dividends this project is providing. Please donate by December 31, 2014 to receive a 2014 charitable tax receipt: click here. This past year was the first complete year that the Cardus Religious Schools Initiative, our research partnership with the University of Notre Dame, has been functional and already great strides have been taken. In addition to another benchmark survey of the US education data, we’ve authored over twenty research reports, participated in several academic conferences, and most importantly, have seen our research extensively utilized by a wide range of religious schools. Perhaps the most tangible illustration of the conversation-changing impact this work is having was the invitation to present our findings at the CUNY Institute for Educational Policy at the Roosevelt House in New York City. This event attracted leaders from across the educational establishment, engaged with Jewish and Muslim school leaders, and was covered in the New York Post. Yet to keep up this momentum, we do need your help. Cardus can develop ideas, take initiative, and point to the fruits of our efforts, but an even more important measurement of what we do is the extent to which we are able to speak on behalf of a growing community who care about these issues and are prepared to express their concern with solidarity and with giving. If you're able, please consider making a tax-receipted donation to Cardus in support of our work before the year is over. Thanking you for your past interest and support in Cardus and our work in education and looking forward to hearing from you. Ray Pennings Program Director, Education December 2014 Please donate by December 31, 2014 to receive a 2014 charitable tax receipt: click here.

"Some of the cultural aspects around construction and how it's viewed...it's kind of a second choice option," said Brian Dijkema, Program Director, Work and Economics at Cardus. "What we wanted to do was work with our partners to show that working in the construction trades is worthy of being considered a first choice option." The project will include a series of Canada-wide roundtable discussions involving key players in the industry, government and education system. The first meeting will be held on Oct. 27 in Calgary, followed by a meeting in Vancouver on Oct. 29, Toronto on Nov. 6 and Ottawa on Nov. 20. "At those roundtables...we are going to engage folks in the education sector on that file because one of the things that have come up is the difficulty communicating those opportunities," Dijkema added. "People are simply not aware of them. One of the outcomes we hope is greater awareness and an actual attempt to focus on guidance counsellors." Read the rest of this article at the Daily Commercial News website.

Working with your hands: it takes skill, intelligence, patience, and a pride in what you're doing. But in North America today, some of our policies and structures assume that getting your hands dirty is second-class work. The Building Meaning Project will reframe our understanding of the trades and make the connection between the dignity of working with one's hands, good jobs, and a healthy Canadian economy. In the Daily Commercial News, Cardus Work and Economics program director Brian Dijkema spoke about why this project is so important: "We want to communicate that...construction trades work is actually meaningful, stimulating work," he said. "It's intellectually demanding, it's intellectually stimulating and there's a sense of meaning to when you're able to build something." Read the full interview here. For more on some of the trends that we're addressing in this project, read Doug Sikkema's article at the Cardus Daily: No Shame in Dirty Hands. And visit www.buildingmeaning.com for all the details.

Join Milton Friesen, director of our Social Cities research program, for "The Other Side of the City: Urban Institutions That Harm and Help." This discussion is part of the Philosophers' Café Series hosted by the Ronning Centre. Location: Steeps, The Urban Tea House 11116 - 82nd (Whyte) Avenue Edmonton October 4, 2014 from 1:00-3:30 p.m. More on this series here.

On September 11 and 12, 2014, Cardus participated in a pilot project to launch an international network of Christians in think tanks hosted by the Transatlantic Christian Council. Other organizations involved included the Acton Institute, Alliance Defending Freedom, Renaissance Partnership for Faith and Culture, CitizenLink, and the Colson Center. Ray Pennings hosted a panel discussion with speakers Rocco Buttiglione, philosopher, policitican, and author of a biography of John Paul II, and Os Guinness, social critic and author of The Global Public Square.

The release of the newest U.S. data from Cardus Education took place at Roosevelt House in New York, New York, September 10, 2014. The event was hosted by the CUNY Institute for Education Policy in New York, New York. Panelists included former New York Education Commissioner David Steiner, CUNY Institute for Education Policy's Ashley Berner, Islamic Schools League's Kathy Jamil, and Sean Corcoran of New York University. For more information on the data, visit www.carduseducationsurvey.com

HAMILTON, September 9, 2014—A report published today by Hamilton-based think tank Cardus says Ontario could free anywhere from $188 million to $283 million a year simply by making small changes to the way it procures major public construction projects. "The reality is that the public is not getting good value or a bang for its buck," said Brian Dijkema, coauthor of the report and director of Work and Economics at Cardus. "When construction projects are tendered in such a way that costs rise 20 to 30 percent, there's clearly something wrong." Currently a section of the Ontario Labour Relations Act has forced major municipalities including Toronto, Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie, and the Region of Waterloo to be certified as "construction employers," preventing 70 percent of local companies from competing for local construction projects. The paper, Hiding in Plain Sight: The Need for Fairness and Fiscal Responsibility in Construction Procurement, examines the impact of these restrictions. "When Ontario and its cities are in desperate need of infrastructure and short on cash, we should be making sure our dollars go as far as they can," said Dijkema. "It's time we encouraged healthy construction competition that results in greater efficiency, fairness, and savings." The report, co-authored with procurement expert Stephen Bauld, is the latest publication of the Cardus Construction Competitiveness Monitor. Cardus is a think tank for social innovation that builds intellectual capacity, social networks, and policy alternatives to sustain a wide range of cultural entrepreneurs involved in the study and renewal of North American social architecture. The report and previous publications can be found at here. Media Contact: Naomi Biesheuvel nbiesheuvel@cardus.ca

HAMILTON, September 4, 2014 — Fresh North American data and a provocative new research paper from an esteemed Ontario academic clinch the argument for making school choice a key part of educational policy for the public good. "The data suggest that in learning to respect and get along with other people, the graduates of non-public schools are doing better in adult life than the graduates of public schools," Cardus executive vice president Ray Pennings recently told an audience in Calgary. "When we welcome them all and learn from each other, taking the best practices across the board and allowing the marketplace of choice to drive innovation in our education system, we will see improvement for all." His comments came during a public debate with Alberta Liberal MLA Kent Hehr, who is campaigning for an end to all taxpayer funding of non-public schools in the province. Pennings said data from Hamilton-based think tank Cardus shows it's the wrong policy choice. The political and policy implications of the Cardus argument are set out in a research paper, Toward a Warmer Climate for Ontario's Private Schools, by Derek J. Allison, emeritus professor in the education faculty at Western University. Allison reaches back 30 years to the Shapiro commission on private schools in Ontario to buttress the case for education choice being considered a primary public good. Download the paper at go.cardus.ca/warmerclimate. "It is time for Ontario's schools to be brought in from the cold," Allison writes. "Almost three decades have passed since the provincial Commission charged with looking into their future presented its report, but nothing of importance has been done." He notes that, contrary to recommendations in the Shapiro report, punitive fees have been piled onto non-government schools—including those that actually work against students meeting the standards of Ontario’s Secondary School Diploma. Allison’s research says this is part of an entrenched pattern with the province’s education bureaucracy to diminish the role of non-government schools—religious and non-religious—as good alternatives to the public system. He notes that there are only eight government officials overseeing more than 1000 private schools, compared with 73 professional staff in leadership of Ontario’s French Language schools, which enrol fewer students than the private schools. Cardus’ Ray Pennings says such attitudes work directly against the public good of school choice. "We have the numbers, and the numbers show that private schools serve the public good," Pennings says. "Whether in the U.S. or Canada, they make positive contributions to well-educated and engaged future citizens. On September 10 in New York City, Cardus and its colleagues at Notre Dame University will release the third in a series of studies showing the public benefits of both religious and non-religious private schools of social capital formation, academic performance, economic advantage, gender equality, and civic engagement. The latest study, to be showcased at City University of New York (CUNY) and conducted under the auspices of the Cardus Religious Schools Initiative at the University of Notre Dame, indicates: Private religious schools do better at fostering diversity, tolerance, and lasting relationships among students. Students in private religious schools are well prepared for the work force, have strong familial ties and lower divorce rates, and a relative equality between the genders in terms of employability. Religious schools appear to be doing well with civic education producing results comparable to the public schools. The findings further confirm 2011 U.S. research conducted by Cardus, and mirror the think tank’s 2012 Canadian data. Find more information at www.cardus.ca/research/education.

Now that the Ontario election is over, Queen’s Park needs to act decisively to find as many means as possible to stem the flow of red ink from Ontario's books. And while there will no doubt be heated discussion about where to find these savings—whether through cuts or attrition—there is one major policy change that is hiding in plain sight that could save anywhere from $190-million to $283-million per year. This policy change wouldn't require new investment. In fact, it requires the government to do almost nothing except bring its procurement practices in line with those of almost every other province and developed country. Actually, it's even simpler than that: Ontario’s government and its major cities can save money just by bringing construction procurement in line with what its own laws, guidelines and practices already require. Despite such requirements, cities such as Toronto, Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie—and now the Region of Waterloo—take construction-project bids only from a limited pool of contractors who are affiliated with a particular union. In other words, workers and contractors can be shut out of bidding on hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of work because they exercised their basic freedom to associate with someone other than the particular union that holds the monopoly. In 2012, the Hamiton-based Cardus think tank discovered that over $900-million dollars per year was tied up by such monopolies. The unions that benefit from the monopoly suggest that the cost increase is a modest 2%, while other estimates suggest it is an order of magnitude higher. Cardus’s forthcoming paper, Evaluating Closed Tendering in Construction Markets: the Need for Fairness and Fiscal Responsibility, covers a wide range of empirical studies on competition in government construction procurement. These suggest that Ontarians are paying 20% to 30% more for construction projects that are subject to closed tendering. That means that every time a water treatment plant is built in Hamilton, Toronto, Sault Ste. Marie, every time carpentry work gets done in the Region of Waterloo, taxpayers are paying 20% to 30% too much. There is absolutely no justifiable reason for this. As we note in our paper, it is universally acknowledged that public procurement is intended to serve "the good of the general public, as contrasted with the particular individuals or firms involved in a decision." In fact, the importance of competition is so universally accepted as the best way to attain value for the public that Ontario’s law, and all of its procurement guidelines, supposedly require it. Take the Ontario Municipal Act: "Municipalities shall not confer on any person the exclusive right of carrying on any business, trade or occupation." Or, take Ontario’s Broader Public Sector Procurement Directive, which also mandates open, competitive bidding. The reason that directives and laws like these are in place in all OECD countries is that there is a consensus that competition creates the best value for the government, and minimizes the possibility of corruption. As we note in our paper, the structural framework for bidding on major municipal projects in Ontario is analogous to those that, in Quebec, led to the culture of corruption traced in the Charbonneau Commission’s interim report. Premier Kathleen Wynne has set an ambitious goal for her government: to balance Ontario’s budget without making cuts. Allowing Ontario municipalities, school boards, and other public entities to fall in line with what is already mandated by the province will help her accomplish that.