Families brace for education cuts

Horwath to host North York education town hall Monday

QUEEN’S PARK — Official Opposition NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said that families are bracing for the impact of Doug Ford’s budget when it comes to education — including rising class sizes, thousands of teachers and education workers cut, and online-only courses for every student.

Horwath will host a town hall in North York Monday night to hear from parents, students, teachers and education workers.

“Parents and students looking for better education in Doug Ford’s budget were let down,” said Horwath. “Students will be crammed into larger classes with less support, and forced to take some courses online. Ford’s squeezing our education system even further with an education budget that doesn’t even keep pace with inflation, let alone student needs.

“What will cutting thousands of teacher and education workers mean to student success?”

In Toronto, about 1,000 redundancy notices have been sent to teachers and education workers, the precursor to lay-off notices. At least 260 more notices have been sent to education workers in Windsor, Guelph and Waterloo. In York region, 300 notices have gone out. In Peel region, 90 notices have gone out, in addition to over 50 in Kawartha and another 30 to 40 expected in Hamilton Catholic schools.

Horwath and the NDP are bringing people together to voice their concerns, and push back against Doug Ford’s education cuts. Families are expected to pack an education town hall at North York’s C.W. Jeffery’s Collegiate Institute on Monday night to discuss how to stop Ford and build a better education system so all students can thrive.

“We all imagine an Ontario where public education is valued. Where schools are in good repair, class sizes are manageable and every student has an opportunity to discover their gifts, whether they’re in math, music, trades or the arts,” said Horwath. “While Doug Ford is trying to drag us backwards and take away education supports, New Democrats are standing with families and fighting to make our vision a reality.”