Surplus notices signal damage to come from Ford’s deep education cuts

QUEEN’S PARK — Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP Education critic, said news that nearly 1,000 high school teachers in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) have received notice that they may not have a job for the next school year is a hint of the damage the Ford Conservatives’ deep cuts to education will cause.

Global Toronto reports that almost four times the number of high school teachers in Toronto have received a surplus notice compared to last year. A surplus notice alerts an educator to the fact that their class won’t exist next year — and while in past years, there was a chance of those educators getting reassigned, the new Doug Ford cuts to education makes the threat of job losses for those educators very real.

“A thousand teachers in Toronto alone are staring down the possibility of being handed a pink slip,” said Stiles. “That’s as many as 1,000 fewer adults in schools available to look out for our kids and step in to offer help when students are struggling with subjects like math.

“Taking educators away would make it harder for teachers to get to know their students’ strengths and challenges, and nearly impossible to give any of them one-on-one attention. It means courses in Toronto schools will be cut in subjects like technology, trades, art and music. It means classes will be crowded and every school will have less adult supervision.”

Educators, parents and students are not taking the Ford Conservatives’ deep cuts to education sitting down, with more than 10,000 people descending on Queen’s Park for a protest on Saturday. The Conservatives are taking $1 billion out of the education system by increasing class sizes, forcing high school students to take online courses and taking thousands of teachers out of schools.

“Students deserve better than to be shortchanged on their education, and that’s exactly what they’re telling this government if the government would just listen,” said Stiles. “We should be investing in giving our kids a high-quality education, not increasing class sizes, laying off teachers and offering fewer course options.”