The Ontario elections are over. The government spent $189 million in taxpayer money to lose two seats and we are back to basically where we were moments before the election. While Trump’s tariffs received the most attention during the election, parents and educators are still left fighting for more space for issues plaguing education in Ontario. The major opposition parties all made pledges, including increased funding.
Global reported just before the election that both the NDP and Green Party promised to increase funding per elementary and secondary school student by $1,500. This is the amount cut by the Tories since they have been in government. The Liberals also promised funding increases, but didn’t give any details. The Tories failed to outline any spending plans on education.
Ford and opposition parties on education
According to Karen Littlewood, the president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation under Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative leadership, public education hasn’t been properly funded, which has impacts across the system. Her union released a statement going into the current school year stating: “when accounting for inflation and increases in enrollment, over $2 billion is missing from core education funding for the 2024-2025 school year when compared to the 2017-2018 school year. Funding per pupil has also failed to keep up with inflation as the Ford government has cut effective funding per student by almost 10 per cent since 2018.”
The union slammed the Ford government for claiming they have made historic investments in funding for education. They noted that in particular mental health supports have suffered as workers leave the public education system to find higher wages and better working conditions elsewhere. This has lead to real shortages and delays in accessing mental health supports for students.
While the promises of the opposition parties matter little to parents and education workers across the country now. We need to find ways to fight for the education system we want.
Tariffs and the fight for strong public services
Amidst the talk of tariffs and trades wars and a swell of Canadian pride, it is worth talking to our colleagues about what exactly we want to defend. We have seen the appalling learning and working conditions in many schools across America, the rampant inequality and the lack of union protections for educators and the lack of social services for families. If there is anything to be defensive about, it is that. We should be fighting for a robust and well funded public education system that meets the needs of students, families and education workers.
To do that, we need to link up with other workers in our schools (and beyond) to make sure that we bargain together to force the Ford government to fund our schools. We must learn the lessons of the last few years and show our strength. As I have written before, education workers in this province felt our power in November 2022 when we were on the verge of a general strike that forced Doug Ford to back down from his anti-union legislation. This set the climate for all contract negotiations in the sector. We can feel this power again, but it will require a coordinated and active approach that unites all education workers and speaks to the broader public.
By finding ways to coordinate actions and strategy with members of OPSEU, CUPE and other education workers, we can go beyond fighting in our silos and building a coordinated front of education workers that can work together. An example to look to was the half a million public sector workers that went on strike in November and December of 2023 known as the Common Front. It was the largest strike in Quebec’s history and one of the largest in the history of Canada. The strike was successful in drawing out huge numbers of workers into action and ultimately achieving big gains in wages and working conditions at the bargaining table. It also inspired other workers in Quebec to fight and win.
Education workers have done this in the past in Ontario and can do it again.
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