By: Laura Steiner
The Ministry of Education has introduced education-funding allocations to the province’s school boards. Our government will provide $24.66 billion in education funding to school boards in 2019–20.“I have always been an advocate for the students in Milton and am committed to working with the Minister of Education to ensure they receive the funding they need.” said MPP Parm Gill. The Halton District School Board (HDSB) will receive approximately $1.4 million in additional funding, while the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) will get $4.8 million.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) say it’s only a slight increase, and does not make up for the reduction to other grants. The Pupil Foundation Grant was reduced by $790,000 from $355,797,703 to $335,007,603. The Learning Opportunity Grant has been cut by $6,652,362 from: $13,182,871 to $6,620,509 “MPP Gill can try to spin the slight increase, but in the end what it will mean is there will be less professional, passionate and caring teachers in HDSB Schools,” HDSB Bargaining Unit President Cindy Gage said in an email.
Halton will receive an increase in the Grants for Student Needs (GSN) program for both the Halton District School Board and Halton Catholic District School Board.
Teachers Protest Proposed Changes Outside Parm Gill’s Office
The sidewalk outside Gill’s office was the setting for a protest Friday May 3, 2019. Teachers from throughout southern Ontario gathered to protest the changes proposed by the Ford government including the increase in the number of students per class, as well as the introduction of four online credits for high-school students. “We do not accept that teachers can lose their jobs because this government is cavalier and reckless towards education,” David Sykes told the crowd in a speech. While HDSB has not yet said anything about cutbacks, Gage says there could be as many as 154 teachers within the bargaining unit without a position in September.
In addition to teacher positions lost, many support staff jobs have been cut, leaving our most vulnerable students with fewer services, and longer wait times for services like psychoeducational assessments, social work services, and speech language assessments.
Why would the Catholic Board (who has additional funding) get significantly more from the government when they have fewer schools in Halton?