Ford Government is failing our most vulnerable people

BY SELINA MacCULLUM

Education in Ontario is about to look very different, and students, parents, and education workers are disappointed by the government failing them. The changes being made are online-only courses for every high-school student, thousands of teachers and education workers being laid-off, and rising class sizes.

Under the plan, the average class size for grades four through eight will rise from 23.84 to 24.5, while the average class size for grades nine through twelve will jump from 22 to 28.

Official Opposition NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says that families are bracing for the impact of Doug Ford’s budget when it comes to education.

“We all imagine an Ontario where public education is valued. Where schools are in good repair, class sizes are manageable and every student has an opportunity to discover their gifts, whether they’re in math, music, trades or the arts,” said Horwath. “While Doug Ford is trying to drag us backward and take away education supports, New Democrats are standing with families and fighting to make our vision a reality.”

NDP Education Critic, Marit Stiles says that this will cause challenges for a lot of people in Ontario.

“It’s going to mean less one-on-one time with teachers for students, fewer adults in our schools, and more pressure on everyone,” says Stiles.

Teachers already do not get paid to stay after school to supervise clubs and sports. With fewer teachers in schools, there will be fewer clubs for students to join and lead.

“Teachers are going to be overworked and I’m worried we’re going to see some of those after-school programs lost,” said Stiles.

In Toronto, about 1,000 redundancy notices have been sent to teachers and education workers, the precursor to lay-off notices. At least 260 more notices have been sent to education workers in Windsor, Guelph, and Waterloo.

In York region, 300 notices have gone out. In Peel region, 90 notices have gone out, in addition to over 50 in Kawartha and another 30 to 40 expected in Hamilton Catholic schools.

“Students will basically be fighting for attention from their teachers, and teachers know that that is a recipe for problems,” said Stiles. “A teacher said to me the other day, “Our working environment, is a student’s learning environment,” so you can’t really separate the two things.”

Stiles believes that this may affect the graduation rate. According to the Ministry of Education, in 2017, the five-year graduation rate was 86.3%, and the four-year graduation rate was 79.8%.

“Electives like art and skilled trade classes keep students in school, but with the potential of them being eliminated from the Ontario curriculum, this may affect the graduation rate,” said Stiles.

Horwath and the NDP have been bringing people together to voice their concerns and push back against Doug Ford’s education cuts by holding town halls in North York to hear from parents, students, teachers, and education workers.

A provincial student group called Students Say No has been holding protests against Ford’s education cuts across Ontario since the announcement was made. The most recent protest was held in the afternoon outside Brampton City Hall on May 4^th.

“What has been the most interesting to me is that the students have been organizing themselves in protest to the government’s cuts, and the government has been really insulting to the students,” said Stiles.

In response to the student-run protests, Ford called the students a “bunch of pawns”.

Students Say No issued a statement online against these claims. “We would greatly appreciate it if you stopped lying to the people of this province in order to discredit our work…To claim that this walkout was organized, orchestrated, or puppeteered by adults is not only false but extremely insulting to the young people of Ontario,” wrote one of the students of the Students Say No group.

Even with the backlash from students, parents and education workers, the Ontario government has not backed down.

“They’re cutting programs that affect our most vulnerable people — people with disabilities, students, children with autism. So, every time they attack the programs that support the most vulnerable people, we think that says something about what their priorities are,” said Education Critic. “The government needs to reverse this decision.”