Radical changes in Ontario’s public education foresee more troubles ahead in 2020

BY PAUL JUNOR

There is no doubt that the landscape of public education in Ontario is undergoing major changes and transformations as we get set in a few weeks to welcome the third decade of the 21^st century. Since 1992, I have witnessed first-hand these major revisions. I am aware of the impact of the cancellation of programs, increase in class sizes, reduction of services, and the increased workload on teachers impacting their emotional, physical and mental health. Education has become a battlefield for many in the province. The Progressive Conservative, who ran the province from 1960s to 1985 under the leadership of Premier Bill Davis, made astounding educational gains. It is clear that the economic condition that prevailed in Ontario had a major impact on educational spending. The recession of the 1990s, under the New Democrat Party (NDP) austerity agenda of the PC under Mike Harris and Ernie Eves in 2000s, increased spending on social and energy programs under Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, and now decreased spending under Doug Ford all have had significant effects on public education.

There are many similarities that exist between the PC led government of Mike Harris who came into power in 1994, and the current government of Doug Ford who came into power in 2018. Mike Harris, who took over from the NDP under Bob Rae, saw the total debt increase from $35.4 billion in1989-1990 to $ 90.7 in 1994-1995. With a majority vote in May 1994, Mike Harris unleashed what was dubbed the “Common Sense Revolution” in 1997, and this was especially damaging on public education. The passing of Bill 160 by Education Minister, John Snobelen titled, “Education Quality Improvement Act” reconfigured: education funding, the delivery of programs, management of school boards and the collective bargaining process of teachers. With the introduction of province-wide testing and the elimination of grade 13, with the condensing of high schools from five years to four years led to a two-week full strike in 1997. The education system has not fully recovered from these changes.

In many ways the Doug Ford government with the introduction of Bill 124, struck at the heart of public education. It has cut $25 million in funding for specialized programs in elementary and secondary schools across the province for at-risk and indigenous students. By increasing class size from 22 to 28 and now 25 average students, and mandating four mandatory e-learning courses now reduced to two, the government expects to significantly reduce the costs of public education by eliminating high school teaching positions. This has led to the loss of hundreds of jobs across the province and thousands more are expected in the next few years. The teachers unions responded by staging strikes on December 4^th, 11th and 18th at ten selected boards. The government mandated only a 1% increase, which would provide only $750 million towards teacher’s salaries. This increase has further incensed the unions by circumventing the collective bargaining process. Two teachers unions OSSTF and OECTA have filed legal challenges against Bill 124. This will no doubt take some days to resolve.

It is clear that in its austerity programs, the PC government is focused on significantly reducing expenditures on public education, by inflating the projected deficit to $15 billion, which has now been scaled back to approximately $12.2 billion according to Bonnie Lysk. As reported in the December 5^th edition of the Toronto Star, the government is preaching fiscal prudence. In an education fact sheet from Uppekha Jain that was released on December 10^th, according to the Ministry of Education, “The average OSSTF members make $92 000 per year (2003-2004 to 2017-2018), the total bill for teachers’ salaries increased by 12%. The fact that health and education accounts for more than 50% of Ontario’s spending of $61.3 billion out of $129.1 billion is a major concern to government. The impact of the loss of these teaching jobs will have a ripple effect across the system. Students will continue to suffer tremendously.”