There have been a number of developments in math education in the last few weeks and months. Pressure from people such as yourself, from the media and from many concerned Ontario citizens has brought a renewed emphasis on basic facts to Ontario elementary math education. Eleven or twelve years ago, the thinking was that children did not need these basics facts, as computers would handle that sort of thing. Wrong. Children do need basics and as you know a whole lot more. Behind the scenes, much more is being doing to ensure that children know basic facts and although this is unofficial and very uneven, pressure from people around this province has paid off. I am going to ask each of you to send your tutoring bills to the Ministry of Education and to your MPP. Even old receipts can probably be obtained from tutoring companies, I got mine a number of years after the actual tutoring. Please read subsequent updates. I understand this is a very busy time and want to make this an easy process for each one of you, no matter what kind of tutoring your child(ren) received. Results from 2 international tests, TIMSS and PISA were published in the last 2 weeks and they indicate that Ontario still has numerous problems with math education. If you have any comments or suggestions, please email me at stingers101@live.ca I would like to hear from as many of you as possible. Share your stories and comments. Please read upcoming updates and I will outline a number of suggestions in the next few days. Thank you for all the assistance you have given to this cause. Encourage others to sign the petition. Teresa Murray, Hamilton.