Dear Editor:
You may have heard rumours about the challenges facing our schools at the moment: increasing violence, large class sizes and lack of supports for students with special needs.
As a teacher, I see my students and colleagues negatively affected every day by these issues, and I believe our communities need to better understand the situation and demand action from our Ontario government officials.
The Ford government has cut more than $6.35 billion from public education in the past seven years. Each year, they tell teachers and school boards to do more with less. Instead of taking responsibility, this government seems to be trying to intentionally mislead the public, blaming trustees or local school boards rather than their own financial neglect of our public system.
This year, they started replacing democratically elected school board trustees across the province with their own appointees who have little experience in education and who are mandating top-down “solutions” to problems their underfunding created in the first place.
In the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB), we have 10 school board trustees. They organize and run various committees, respond to public input and concerns, and try to make decisions in the best interest of students and parents. UGDSB trustees do all this for a measly $5,900 per year honorarium! Who will represent parents’ concerns if these 10 positions are replaced by one ministry-appointed official?
If you care about children and the future of this province, or if you want to share your ideas about what education in Ontario should look like, please attend the Nov. 24 online public meeting to hear about the state of our schools. This meeting is being organized by four different teacher unions in the region and will feature speakers including a former trustee, an education critic, and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario president.
Attendees will be able to ask questions and find out more. Join this link via Zoom at 7pm on Nov. 24 at bit.ly/3JplbLS or email andreaaloe.etfo@gmail.com for the meeting link.
Rebekah Jamieson,
Guelph
*Editor’s note: The provincial government has not “cut” education spending over the last seven years. Spending has increased during that period, but critics say it has not kept pace with rising costs and inflation in order to maintain the per-student funding level of 2018.