For the people and against their education

RE: FORD GOVERNMENT

As an educator, I teach my students how to infer — to read between the lines and effectively deduce information and meaning from evidence rather than from explicit statements. Using their critical thinking and rationalizing skills, I challenge my students to analyze the politicized spaces around them.

What might we be able to infer about the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party’s views on education? Since being elected, the PCs have: replaced a new, much-needed health, physical, and sexual education curriculum with an outdated version developed before Sam Oosterhoff’s birth; repealed Bill 148: Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs, which has made part-time and contract work in education more precarious; scrapped millions of dollars in funding for initiatives, including after-school programming aimed at helping Ontario’s most vulnerable and at-risk students; proposed making standardized math testing mandatory for all newly certified teachers; cut 10 per cent in post-secondary tuition fees, which will actually result in no tuition exemptions for students from low-income households, fewer OSAP grants, and less funding for student governments, organizations, and services; and eradicated OSAP’s six-month, interest-free grace period on student loans. What’s next? Removing the necessary cap on the number of students in a primary classroom. Oh, wait ...

So, what can we infer about Ford? He is for the people — and the demise of their education system, apparently. While Ford may be “open for business,” he is certainly closing the door on education.

Gianluca Agostinelli, St. Catharines