Just weeks after students returned to class and a month since Education Minister Paul Calandra began his scapegoat-the-school-boards media blitz, a new poll has found that a decisive majority of Ontarians lay the blame for cuts to public education and the lack of support services in schools at the door of Doug Ford’s Conservatives.
The public opinion survey by Abacus Data confirms that most Ontarians hold the Ford Conservative government – not local trustees – responsible for the underfunding that denies vital classroom services to students across the province.
“Ontarians know that the biggest problem for education is provincial underfunding; the cuts that hurt students, schools and education workers aren’t the fault of local and accountable school boards trustees. In fact, Ontarians value the people who are democratically elected to represent communities’ and parents’ interests,” said Fred Hahn, a social worker and the president of CUPE Ontario.
For many years, provincial funding for education has failed to keep up with inflation and higher enrollments. However, the inadequacy of education funding has gotten even worse since the Ford government took power in 2018, resulting in lasting damage to students and workers.
Joe Tigani, an educational assistant and the president of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions, OSBCU, said: “The Ford Conservatives have underfunded public education in Ontario by billions of dollars since 2018, and students and the education workers who support them are at a breaking point.
“It’s time for Premier Doug Ford to listen to workers. After all, he has claimed to be ‘for workers’ and we’re telling him: fix the problem by filling the funding gap you’ve made so much worse. Parents know the problem, and they aren’t buying your attempts to blame democratically elected local trustees for shortfalls.”
“We were shocked by the numbers of people so angered by Conservative plans to scapegoat school boards that they’d rather get rid of the Minister of Education than their democratically elected trustees,” said Hahn, noting that two-thirds of those polled want Education Minister Paul Calandra fired “for his attempts to undermine Ontario democracy through this anti-parent power grab to eliminate local school trustees.”
“I don’t think the Conservatives realize the nerve they have hit here,” said Tigani. “Now is the time to change course, to fund our schools and quell the righteous concerns and anger of parents and education workers.”