(TORONTO, ON) – The government’s proposed education funding cuts and changes to class sizes and curriculum will compromise learning for students across the province, while violating collective agreements, says OFL.
“Increasing class sizes at any grade level means fewer educators to provide individual learning, compromising the quality of education for Ontario’s next generation,” said Ontario Federation of Labour President Chris Buckley. “These reckless policy changes will mean thousands of job losses in the education sector.”
Today’s announcement will remove 1.4 billion dollars of funding from Ontario’s public education system over the next four years. The funding cuts coincide with increases to class sizes and reduced funding for the services needed by children with autism. Larger classes leave less time for educators to provide individualized learning for students.
“The higher number of students in the classroom will have a deeply negative impact on student success and individual learning, particularly for students with autism and other special needs,” said Ontario Federation of Labour Secretary-Treasurer Patty Coates. “At the same time, educators are being faced with new, untested curriculum on health and physical education. This is not how you build a strong education system.”
“As class sizes increase, so does the workload for educators,” said Buckley. “The OFL stands in solidarity with education workers, who bargained in good faith with the government and are now seeing their agreements ignored.”
The Ontario Federation of Labour represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.ofl-org.flywheelsites.com and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter.
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For further information, please contact:
Meagan Perry,
Director of Communications
Ontario Federation of Labour
mperry@ofl-org.flywheelsites.com l 416-894-3456
