(THREAD) Today, the Minister of Education @Sflecce announced "the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act," promising transparency and accountability by taking power away from school boards to make decisions free from transparency and accountability.
- If you’re wondering what the difference is between this program & the pre-existing co-op, essentially, the Education Act, requires students to stay in school until they’re 18 or graduated. This new bill allows employers to hire child labour at a low cost.
- Along with monetizing students, we’ll be seeing the use of "surplus" assets as real estate. The government will use these unused schools *like the greenbelt* for housing that’ll be likely unaffordable and long-term care facilities that’ll likely be underfunded.
- Sending developers cheap and unrestricted high school-educated labour while selling public assets to private buyers is all part of the privatization & private interest driven plan. Take more from the public and cover it up with investment cuts.
2/ The Minister will be enforcing an autocratic agenda on school boards, effectively taking away the ability of trustees elected by their communities to do the work we need them to.
- I don't need to go into detail about why we don’t need the ministry's supervision in our school boards; we already saw it waste money and accomplish nothing in Peel, and what mandates could the Minister have for us when we can see what the Premier has for him?
4/ What benefits will be come from the $100+ million after withholding billions since forming government? How will we meet needs with 50 cents extra a day per student? How will we support students when they hire less than we lose? We won't; that’s the plan.
- "Boards need to refocus on what matters, which is student achievement" - @Sflecce Another example of the Education Minister only acknowledging boards when he needs to shift the blame off his government's underfunding.
- If you want to help students succeed, fix our learning environments. Decrease class sizes, propose strategies on staff retention AFTER consulting boards and unions, stop cuts to programs & boards, and meet with students to find out what we need.
From bill 124, to bill 7, to bill 28, & to bill 98, when will this government realize that making moves against the public and then lying about having our best interests in mind doesn’t go unnoticed, and the money saved in the short term will bankrupt our future.
(THREAD) The Ford government tabled the budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year Tuesday afternoon. Despite having presented the largest budget in our province's history, the government has yet to address our underfunded public services or put an end to shortchanging.
1/ In education, what appears to be a $2.3 billion dollar spending increase was actually allocated for the federal-provincial childcare agreement, making it not only federal funding, but it also won't be for primary or secondary school.
2/ In addition, we have a $17 billion backlog in school repairs that was only covered by $2.8 billion in funding in this budget, and school boards like the TDSB have less money to spend on programs because they must replenish the reserves used in COVID.
(THREAD) The Ford government's and the Minister of Education's lies about "historic" funding in the education sector have once again been indisputably proven. Thanks to the Financial Accountability Office, we now know $844 million went unspent last quarter.
1/ Just this Tuesday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce claimed mental health funding is up “400%” because “we recognize the demand is up”. #Onted#OnPoli
2/This is a misleading statistic, as with roughly 2 million children in our public schools, 90 million dollars equates to 45 dollars per child, proof this government doesn’t understand how doubling & quadrupling on nothing is as ineffective as it is “historic”. #Onted#OnPoli
(THREAD) The Minister of Education Stephen Lecce has made it clear that his only clear agenda this round of bargaining is to destroy the public education system, vilify the workers who make keep our schools open, and blatantly lie to the public about union demands. #Onted#OnPoli
1/Lecce stated that CUPE is trying to “disrupt in class learning” with their unreasonable demands, I feel I must say we’re already experiencing various disruptions from things like staffing shortages, a very product of your underfunding. #Onted#OnPoli
2/ When you call the demands by CUPE “astronomical”, you must remember who you’re referring to. 96.5% of CUPE education workers voted in favor of a strike mandate, this translates to 96.5% of the very workers you supposedly “appreciate” supporting CUPE’s proposals. #Onted#OnPoli
(THREAD) I can’t stand to hear @Sflecce claim its about the students because us students know for a fact that for your government the students have NEVER been a priority. #Onted
Last round of bargaining you also insisted that if there is to be an increase in education funding that it goes directly to students and not compensation. So explain why the following years consisted of billions in cuts, increased class sizes, and constant disruptions. #Onted
Paying full time workers a salary where they struggle to make ends meet is the greatest threat to the stability in the profession we need for a normal school year. #Onted
(THREAD) Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s destructive/misleading comments & false promises of stability, investments, fairness for taxpayers are full of holes and repetition of the same manipulation and lies we heard the last round of bargaining. #Onted#OnPoli
1/ In early 2020 Minister Lecce claimed that if we’re to pour more money into the education system that it goes towards students and not compensation. #Onted#OnPoli
(THREAD) Ensuring a “normal”, “safe” and “stable” school year for students is the only message @Sflecce continues to put out, but based off of this governments track record with education what can we expect this to mean and why do they push this message so heavily? #onted#onpoli
Firstly, what does stability mean for us students? Mainly it’s dependability, it’s knowing that the services our teachers and education workers provide will be available daily, something that’s never been as jeopardized & at risk like it has been these past few years. #onted
The Ontario government however has made it clear that they believe a normal and perfect school year for students is the bare minimum of literally just being in the building. #onted#onpoli