FERGUS – The public education system is broken, a panel told its audience at an event at Centre Wellington District High School on May 22 – and it will take defiance, perseverance and a shift in public thinking if change is to come.
Local branches of the Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation (OSSTF) and Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) organized an event to inform parents about what’s really going on in public schools.
They may have missed their mark, as most of the 25 or so people in the audience were educators and already familiar with what’s happening in schools.
But organizers were undaunted and said they plan to continue their education blitz and hope to gain momentum and reach more parents in the coming months and years.
The panelists included:
- Cheryl Lampkin, an early childhood educator and president of the OSSTF District 18 ESSP/ECE bargaining unit;
- Ramzi Abdi, an occasional teacher in Waterloo Region who is a special education specialist;
- Lynda McDougall, a retired teacher and former vice president of the local ETFO who now volunteers in schools; and
- Aislinn Clancy, a school social worker who was recently re-elected MPP for Kitchener Centre and is the deputy leader of the Green Party of Ontario.
Lanny Fleming, a teacher at Elora Public School, acted as moderator and posed prepared questions of the panel.
What should parents know about the current school experience?
School is not the way it was when most parents were in school, the panelists said.
“Parents assume school is the same as when they were students, but there’s so much more violence in the classroom,” Abdi said.
He noted understaffing – of occasional teachers, educational assistants (EAs), early childhood educators (ECEs), bus drivers and custodians – has caused school boards to use unqualified and uncertified teachers to fill the gaps.
He said students are using artificial intelligence (AI) to write papers and the impact of COVID-19 and online learning has caused “lagging skills and lagging social interactions, particularly on younger students.”
Lampkin said students’ mental health needs have “skyrocketed,” class sizes have ballooned and education workers are becoming “burnt out” by the complex needs of their students.
“The commitment from education workers remains unwavering,” she asserted. “Teachers still want better for their students.”
McDougall said underfunding has turned schools – once peaceful places – into stressful places for educators.
“They are always trying to do more with less,” she said.
Clancy noted societal problems are impacting children and they bring it to the classroom.
She listed poverty, income inequity, not having enough to eat and violence in the home as situations that impact students.
How does government funding affect schools?
Clancy said it’s time for educators to talk to parents and chambers of commerce about the political climate that’s allowing the government to underfund schools.
She said Bill 124, the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, was “disrespectful” to educators and did not recognize the new challenges of the job.
Bill 124, which passed in 2019, capped public sector pay increases at one per cent for three years. The bill was repealed in February last year.
“We need to move the political needle,” Clancy said.
“Imagine a society with clean water, healthy food, safety and security and sense of belonging,” McDougall said.
Those are the optimum conditions for learning, but it’s not reality, she said, adding, “Now teachers have to do it all.”
Abdi said cuts to funding have direct impacts on students. He said in Renfrew there was not enough money for busing, so some students weren’t able to attend school for six weeks.
He added integrating special needs students into the mainstream classroom can be disruptive for the class and have a negative impact on the special needs student.
He said the Windsor school board is keeping schools colder in the winter to save money and the Upper Grand District School Board is considering cutting music classes and outdoor education to reduce its budget.
“Schools are falling apart,” he added. “There’s a $27-million backlog in repairs.”
Lampkin said many of the cuts are small, but over time and taken together, “it’s the kids who are losing.”
Is special education funding meeting the needs of students?
In a word, “no,” all the panelists agreed.
“The funding formula for special education hasn’t kept up,” Lampkin said. “And the waits for assessments can be months – or even years. These delays hurt student outcomes.”
Abdi noted special education also includes enrichment classes for gifted students.
“It’s often seen as the easy cut,” he said. “But the result is reduced engagement and dropouts. Special education has always been underfunded.”
Clancy said de-streaming funding has ended but schools are still catching up on literacy and math. And assessments are a challenge.
“It’s not just education that’s underfunded,” she said. “In many ways the government has tied our hands.”
McDougall cautioned that as with health care, privatization of the public education system is coming. She said it’s happening in Alberta and could happen in Ontario.
“People have to see where education is going,” she said.
Do schools have the resources to support students’ mental health challenges?
This question also got a “no” from the panel.
McDougall said staff also suffer from mental health challenges, not just students, and they need support as well.
She said 60% of Ontario jobs are not full-time, thus reducing or eliminating paid sick days and long-term disability coverage.
Abdi said students have a lot of mental health challenges, “but we are teachers. We are not mental health professionals. Everything cannot be downloaded to teachers.”
Lampkin said the system needs more psychologists, more social workers, more EAs and more supports for the sake of students.
“It comes down to the front line,” she said.
Clancy said students who get help might get six sessions with a professional.
“But with complicated cases, that’s not enough,” she said. “We’ve turned everything into McDonald’s with mental health. It’s a two-tier mental health system.”
Why is there more violence in schools? How do you turn it around?
“The increase in violence has a direct correlation to unmet needs,” Lampkin said, noting students act out on each other and on teachers.
“We need proper staff ratios. Safety plans need to exist and be updated and followed. This is a hot button topic for me.”
Abdi said violence in school has been normalized to the point where schools aren’t reporting it, staff isn’t reporting it and incidents are not made public.
“There’s an expectation that EAs are punching bags and that’s not right,” he said.
Clancy said the government needs to listen to the unions and come up with a plan.
“And it needs to start with junior kindergarten all the way up,” she said.
“Underfunded and struggling seems to be the theme for the night,” said McDougall.
“We lack predictability – no one knows what’s coming through the door; we lack loveability – no one feels loved anymore. And we’re worried that things won’t work out.”
Organizers said there will be more public forums and they hope to reach more parents, because when parents work together with educators, positive change can come about.
Upper Grand District School Board chair Ralf Mesenbrink, who was an educator for 35 years, was in the audience.
In an interview with the Advertiser after the session, he noted that most of the criticism was levelled at the province and not the board, which is doing its best to meet the needs of students and staff.
“So much has changed from 1987 (when Mesenbrink became a teacher) to now – social medial, cell phones, computers…” he said.
“What has not changed is that everybody comes to work wanting to do the best for kids. For that I thank all our staff.”
