Teachers and educators alike are getting ready to rally outside Laurie Scott’s office.
To coincide with rallies being planned across the province, Trillium Lake District School Board teachers are heading to the Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP’s office as a way to spark conversation.
Collin Matthews, the President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, says the provincial government’s series of announcements about education policy is “increasingly discouraging,” he goes on to say that Premiere Doug Ford’s promise to cut four per cent from the budget could mean a $1 billion cut to education, and potentially more than $8 million to the Trillium Lakelands.
Matthews says “educators are rallying to ensure that the community, including parents and legislators, understands that cuts to education would mean cuts to front line services.” He also says “We are in an era where demands for specialized services for students are growing, and staff are facing increasingly difficult working conditions including integrating students with unique needs and coping with rising numbers of violent incidents in the classroom, all the while preparing students with skills to cope in a rapidly changing, highly technological, global economy.”
According to Matthews, the governments announcement of cuts to OSAP and post-secondary funding is “disconcerting”. Another concern of the educators is the review of class sizes in elementary and high school. Matthews says the government has suggested that countries like China and Turkey have noted higher test scores in bigger classes without providing any cultural and historical context.
Matthews says that any concerned parents, or community members can attend the rally in Lindsay February 7th at 3:30pm.
