Ahead of the Toronto District School Board’s final budget meeting
on Wednesday afternoon, concerned Ontarians issued a rallying cry
to Premier Ford: Stop the Cuts and Fund Our Schools.
Since Premier Ford took office in 2018 he and former Minister
for Education Stephen Lecce have cut school budgets by $1,500 per
student per year. For the last six years this has forced school
boards across the province to exhaust their reserve funds
especially during the pandemic. Faced with extreme shortfalls in
funding, trustees have been tasked with the impossible - cut
essential services and resources to balance the budget.
“I have seen how chronic under-funding has hurt our schools year
after year. And now I have to go inside to talk about more cuts to
balance the budgets,” said Neethan Shan, Ward 17 Trustee for the
Toronto District School Board said.
Toronto’s Catholic school board is facing a $60 plus million
dollar deficit for the 2024-2025 school year and the public school
board is facing a $26.5 million dollar deficit - and that’s after
implementing tens-of-millions in reductions since 2019.
“How are we, as trustees, supposed to balance the budget when
there’s been $1500 per student cut every year since 2018? What
services, what resources, what infrastructure should we cut to
balance the budget? Less funding means less resources for students
and for our teachers and staff. They’re trying to hold everything
together with less,” Maria Rizzo, Ward 5 Trustee for the Toronto
Catholic District School Board, said.
Fed up with the cuts and fearing the possibility of more,
education workers, school board trustees, students, parents and
advocacy groups stood together at 5050 Yonge St to urge trustees to
push back and press for the province to pay their fair
share.
John Weatherup, President of Toronto Education Workers, CUPE
4400 said he sees the impact these cuts are having on education
workers and students. “At a time when more resources need to be
spent to help students recover socially, mentally and emotionally
from the pandemic, there are actually less - less lunchroom
supervisors, less caretakers, less adult educators, and less caring
adults in our school buildings.”
“Stephen Lecce has said that ‘underfunding’ is a Toronto
problem; I want to tell you that Lecce is a liar, Todd Smith will
be a liar just like Mike Harris was a liar,” Weatherup
continued.
And it’s not just a Toronto issue - the York Catholic District
School Board, for example, is facing a $19 million dollar
deficit.
“This level of deficit will impact not only today’s students and
education workers, but the generations to come. Premier Ford is
gutting our publicly funded education system, and staff and
students are paying the price,” Mike Totten, York OECTA President
said.
The lack of funding especially hurts kids with special needs.
Sandra Huh, Director at the Ontario Autism Coalition and
co-chair of York Communities for Public Education works with
families across the province advocating for access to
resources.
“Autistic kids are getting left behind because Doug Ford’s
Ontario is not a place for kids with special needs. The resources
available in schools are becoming harder to access while resources
available out of school are increasingly non-existent due to a
waitlist that is years long. It’s heartbreaking to see my sweet kid
and many like him not getting the support they need and deserve,”
Huh said.
The Fund Our Schools campaign is a coalition of teachers,
education workers, and supporters calling attention to the terrible
conditions in Ontario’s schools and fighting for better working and
learning conditions. The fight goes beyond Wednesday’s rally and
will continue until Ontario’s schools are properly
funded.
“What we really need, though, is to talk about investing in our
schools. What we need to do collectively is to organize and get out
in front of every MPP’s office across the province and to tell
them, ‘no more cuts to education,’” Shan said.
Media Contact: Jennifer
HuangExecutive Assistant, Toronto & York Region Labour
CouncilPhone: 416 886 4082 Email:
jhuang@labourcouncil.ca
About Toronto & York Region Labour
Council:The Toronto & York Region Labour Council
represents over 200,000 workers from diverse sectors across the
Toronto region. Committed to fighting for economic, social, racial
and climate justice, the Council works tirelessly to create a fair
and equitable future for all. Find out more about the Fund Our
Schools campaign here: Fund Our Schools
About Elementary Teachers of Toronto:The
Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT) is a Local of the Elementary
Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). With over 11,000 members,
it is the largest teachers’ Local in Canada.
About Toronto Education Workers Local
4400:Toronto Education Workers/Local 4400 is made up of
approximately 12,000 Education Workers who primarily work within
the Toronto District School Board; Childcare Workers from various
Childcare Centres and Caretakers from Viamonde French Board.
Representing over 400 Job Classifications, and over 1,000
Worksites.
About OSSTF Toronto:The OSSTF Toronto Teachers'
Bargaining Unit represents secondary school teachers in high
schools, adult day schools, alternative schools and programs,
centrally assigned positions, and summer and night schools in the
Toronto District School Board.
About OECTA York Region:As York Region’s local
unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA),
York Catholic Teachers represents more than 4,000 members in
both elementary and secondary schools of the York Catholic
District School Board (YCDSB) teaching and serving approximately
55,000 students from junior kindergarten through to grade 12 in 90
elementary and 16 secondary schools in communities across York
Region.
About TECT: The Toronto Elementary Catholic
Teacher’s (TECT) represents more than 4,000 elementary teachers who
work in the Toronto Catholic District School Board and is the
largest unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association
(OECTA). Our members are teachers of students in all grades and
subjects from Kindergarten to Grade eight throughout the city of
Toronto.
About TSU:The Toronto Secondary Unit (TSU) of
the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association serves over
2,500 permanent and occasional teachers employed in the Secondary
Panel of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.TSU is the
official voice of Catholic Secondary School teachers employed in
the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
About the Ontario Autism Coalition:Formed in
2005, the Ontario Autism Coalition is a province-wide organization
with over 21,000 supporters. The OAC’s mission is to secure
life-long, permanent, scientifically-supported,
government-funded therapy, treatment, and services for
individuals with autism and their families.