Hey Doug! Fund our schools! Parents demand accountability and proper funding.

Parents are fed up with the cuts to TDSB programmes and classrooms and have had enough with the silence about it.

On Saturday a group of them, after attending a day-long conference put on by the TDSB Parent Involvement Advisory Committee (PIAC) spoke about their frustration with the growing troubles at the Board. Sandra Huh, a member of the Toronto Education Advocacy Network (TEAN) said that what is happening in Toronto schools falls short of what students deserve: inadequate funding, lack of transparency and the muzzling of elected trustees. Parents, she explained, are wondering why they are hearing “propaganda ads” about the billions of dollars the Ford government is spending on education while the question remains: where is it going? Where is the support for children with complex needs? Why is the board spending money on cameras to record vandalism in schools, rather than staff to deal with students who might be involved in it? Some of the most vulnerable students in the city have been left to cope with untenable circumstances in a board that was already being held together with “bandaids.”

Lori, a teacher for 26 years, outlined the experience of some of those vulnerable kids. They need help with communication, mobility, regulating their emotions and so much more that hampers their daily lives – simple things like zipping up a jacket to go outside. These children need time, she said. They need consistency and a relationship with caring educators that only diminishes with budget cuts. When kids don’t have the time needed to make themselves understood, something that might be manageable can become a crisis. This isn’t their fault, she argued; it’s the fault of a system that views these young people as numbers on a spreadsheet. “We’re not asking for special treatment for teachers,” she added, “we’re demanding that children with developmental disabilities receive the education, dignity, safety and opportunities they deserve.”

Overlying these problems is a government that isn’t listening to families. Parent Megan Roberts said that she had never intended to learn as much about the public school system as she had but that the “undemocratic removal of accountability and transparency cannot be ignored.” People went to the polls on October 26 expecting that the trustees they elected would take office, consult with and speak for them. It’s time for their roles to be restored in all the eight boards across the province that have been put under Ministry of Education supervision. Instead, TDSB supervisor Rohit Gupta  has stopped livestreaming meetings while the Ford government has cut the number of trustees across the province. It illustrates how little interest the government has in community input. 

The problems in schools, she noted, come from underfunding. They need to be adequately funded – but this alone isn’t enough. The returns from greater funding investments lead directly to improvements in GDP. Keeping students healthy and in school ensures they will get good jobs and contribute to the economy and the future they deserve. “The power of the people will not be ignored,” she said.

Bruce McIntosh of the Ontario Autism Coalition (OAC) has seen the long-term effects of underfunding as the waiting list for autistic kids to receive therapy has grown to over the years beyond 70 000. He spoke plainly about Minister of Education, Paul Calandra: “He thinks he knows better than you. He thinks you’re stupid. He thinks you’ll fall for whatever he tries to tell you.” Yet the TDSB is still using the same budget trustees voted for nearly 18 months ago. He added  that Board staff are under instructions from the supervisor to read reports and documents to the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) – but not to provide paper copies about such matters as staff levels and allocations. The chair of SEAC had to file a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to get a hard copy. Almost every board across the province, he explained, must find extra money the province doesn’t provide, to support special education. To avoid opposition, Calandra is covering up this funding gap: the Tories don’t “want to spend the money, ergo they don’t think our kids are worth it.”  When the elections came and people voted for trustees who would stand up to his tactics, Calandra said he wouldn’t swear in trustees from boards under supervision. Though he has backtracked on this plan, he still won’t allow those trustees to take up their duties, speak to families and ask questions of board administrations.

Sandra Huh says there’s no money to cool buildings on hot days, no money for social workers when students need help with their mental health and “no money for cleaning schools so that vermin aren’t running across kids’ feet during the day.” All of this while the Ford government thinks it can buy planes for its leader and support spas for those who can afford to go to them.

Parents are organizing.