Back to school. Back to the fight

 

It’s September, and like many parents I’m trying to get my almost-ten-year-old ready for Grade 5: sharpening pencils, finding indoor shoes, and negotiating whether Black Panther or Spider-Man belongs on his pencil case.

But while we’re packing backpacks, Doug Ford and Minister of Education Paul Calandra are packing something else: Bill 33. And let’s be honest — this isn’t about “parental choice” or “student success.” It’s about power and money.

Bill 33 is a political wedge dressed up as education policy. It scapegoats teachers, stokes division, and distracts from the real crisis: chronic underfunding. It makes it easier for the Ministry of Education to take over school boards and toss out trustees. It puts cops back in schools whether or not the community wants them there. It even  forces whatever trustees are left in Ontario, to apply to change the names of their communities’ schools. Meanwhile, Ford’s developer friends and Bay Street buddies are circling like vultures. Because when schools are weakened, when enrolment dips, when programs are cut — the next move is to sell off public school land to billionaires who see dollar signs, not classrooms.

We’ve seen this playbook before. It’s Trump-style politics with a Toronto twist: manufacture a culture war, then hand the spoils to your cronies. Students lose, workers lose, and Ford’s insiders cash in.

And while Ford’s family and his wealthy friends’ kids enjoy schools in leafy, well-resourced neighbourhoods or private academies, the rest of us are left with overcrowded classrooms, no air conditioning and  not nearly enough support for kids with special needs. That’s not “choice.” That’s dereliction of responsibility and corruption.

Teachers, parents, and education workers know what’s really at stake. Bill 33 doesn’t build one new classroom, hire one more social worker, or fix one broken window. What it does do is lay the groundwork for privatization — and that’s why we can’t let it pass quietly.

The good news is, we know how to fight back. We’ve beaten bad bills before, and we’ll do it again — by organizing in our schools, rallying at Queen’s Park, and reminding Ford and Calandra that public education belongs to the people, not their billionaire donors.

So yes, this September I’m stocking up on lunch bags and duotangs. But I’m also stocking up on solidarity. Because defending our schools is the most important homework we have this year.

 

 

 

Nigel Barriffe,

Dad, School Teacher, Songwriter