GUELPH – The Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) is set to write a letter to the provincial government expressing concerns with chronic underfunding in education across the province.
The board of trustees passed a motion to pen the letter during a June 24 meeting.
This was prompted by a delegation on May 27 from Tim Mathewson and Amy Reinders, union leaders for the District 18 Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation in Upper Grand.
Mathewson and Reinders presented a petition with over 650 signatures from education workers, parents, and supporters in the UGDSB community.
Trustees agreed with the petition’s asks to send a letter to the Government of Ontario requesting:
– increased annual government investments in public education to ensure Ontario schools can provide the best opportunities for education and student growth;
– immediate and dedicated funding to address the growing backlog of school repairs and maintenance needed to ensure every school is a safe and healthy environment to learn and work; and
– an end to the recruitment and retention crisis to ensure that every student has teachers and education workers they need to support their success each and every day.
Chair Ralf Mesenbrink spoke in favour of the motion during a finance and facilities committee meeting on June 17, saying that “constant budget pressures” as a result of chronic underfunding leave him “concerned about the future” of education in the board and across the province.
That committee unanimously accepted the motion to write a letter and officially recommended it to the board.
At the board meeting trustee Luke Weiler noted that the “real issue” for the budgetary pressures that school boards in Ontario are facing is that the Ford government is “not providing boards with the resources we need … Per student funding in real terms is lower than in the past while expenses keep rising.”
He noted that while next year’s UGDSB budget is balanced, “some of the choices that have been made (to balance the budget) are not sustainable in the long run” and that it’s “our most vulnerable students (that will) suffer the most.”
In a report last year, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that Ontario’s core education funding has dropped by $1,500 per student since 2018.
