Over the past year, the Progressive Conservative government led by Premier Doug Ford has introduced a number of controversial changes to Ontario’s world-renowned system of publicly funded education. While government has framed these as “historic investments” and an attempt to modernize the education system, evidence suggests many of these changes are already having negative effects on the learning environment.

For example, last March, when the government announced its plan to increase secondary class size averages from 22 to 28, then-Minister of Education Lisa Thompson downplayed the impact of “adding only six students.” But this is not how averages work. There are classes at the secondary level that, for a variety of reasons, run with fewer students, such as classes for students with special needs or specialized programs that require particular tools or technologies. These smaller classes are offset by other classes of 30 or more students. In fact, with even small increases to class size averages, mandatory classes, like math, can swell upward of 40 students to achieve the new averages.

At the time, OECTA and other education advocates warned this would result in thousands of teaching positions lost and courses cancelled. The government has repeated the claim that no teacher will lose their job, but the reality is they are not providing funding to replace teachers who retire or leave the profession. Just as we warned, fewer teaching positions has already resulted in fewer teachers and fewer course offerings, including many courses that students require to pursue post-secondary education or career paths.

These cuts have been masked somewhat in this year’s budget by the $1.6 billion Attrition Protection Fund, which helps school boards avoid laying off teachers. But as the independent Financial Accountability Office has confirmed, over the course of the next five years, roughly 10,000 teaching positions will be lost. Despite Minister of Education Stephen Lecce recently suggesting the government might only increase the secondary class size average to 25 students, even this would result in the loss of thousands of teaching positions and tens of thousands of course options. Layer on the government’s plan to impose mandatory e-learning funded at a student-to-teacher ratio of 35:1, and hundreds more teaching positions will disappear. It is hard to contend how any of this will improve publicly funded education in Ontario.

Despite the mounting evidence and news reports highlighting the adverse effects of these education cuts, the government continues to claim it is making an “historic investment” in publicly funded education. At seemingly every opportunity, the government references a $700 million education funding increase, beyond what the previous government spent, as evidence of improvement. But this “increase” conceals deep cuts to classroom funding.

In reality, core per-pupil funding is down $630 million. The “increase” to the overall education budget that the Ford government points to is entirely the result of the short-term attrition fund, as well as the new boutique child care tax credit, which has absolutely no bearing on classroom funding, and for which less than 0.1 per cent of low-income families will be fully eligible.

Further, as part of our 2017-19 contract extension agreement, our Association negotiated the hiring of 335 teachers specifically dedicated to support special education, Indigenous and at-risk students through the newly created Local Priorities Fund; however, these funds were discontinued as of August.

Overall, the government is spending almost three times less on core education costs than what is necessary to keep pace with inflation and enrolment growth. This means the government will be underfunding education by more than $1 billion by 2021-22. Again, all this has been confirmed by the Financial Accountability Office, the government’s own independent fiscal watchdog.

This is not about attacking a government because we don’t align with their ideology. Each new government has the right to put its stamp on education. And there is certainly room for agreeable people to disagree on the finer points of policy. But the government is not being upfront with Ontarians about what is really going on in the classroom.

When the government cuts funding in the classroom, it is the students who truly suffer. As Catholic teachers, we will continue to stand up for publicly funded education in this province, and work tirelessly and devotedly to better the lives of the students we teach and the communities in which we live.

Liz Stuart is a Catholic teacher from York Region. She was elected President of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association in 2017 and re-elected in 2019.

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