Teachers’ unions frustrated by province’s ‘deliberate funding cut’
Despite “splashy announcements” by the provincial government, Niagara’s teachers’ unions are expressing frustration around funding shortfalls, warning they will lead to fewer resources and services for students in the classroom.
Last month, the Ministry of Education released a new format for school board funding, introducing a restructured version of the Grants for Student Needs, called the Core Education Funding.
The government announced an increase of $745 million to the core fund, a $28.6-billion investment in total. It said it’s investing more than $70 million to improve math funding, more than $95 million in student literacy and an increase of $117 million to the special education fund.
While the announcements sound good, Brian Barker, president of Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) Niagara, said the reality is “very different.”
The education minister “deceivingly boasts about ‘historic investments,’ ” Barker said, adding that funding is not keeping up with inflation.
The funding increase is about 1.86 per cent and with inflation at 2.9 per cent, ETFO said it’s a decrease of one per cent overall — or about $141 per student. With more than two million students in the province, the loss is “almost $300 million,” Barker said.
“Let’s call it what it really is: a deliberate funding cut,” said Barker. “The Ford government knows their chronic underfunding of public education will have a detrimental impact on students and our members and don’t seem to care.”
At the elementary level, the ongoing funding cuts will put school boards in a position of having to decide which essential supports to cut, whether positions supporting English language learners or more intensive supports for its “most vulnerable students,” he said.
Examining the announcement, president of the Niagara Elementary Unit for the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association Jennifer Mcarthur said the Ford government has made a $4.6-million inflationary cut to per-stu
dent funding for Niagara Catholic schools for the upcoming school year.
She said funding is “barely one-third” of what’s needed to keep up with inflation, and the government is providing students with less than one dollar per day for classroom supplies, forcing elementary teachers “to do with even less.”
Speaking with teachers, Mcarthur said they “joked about all the bins of material that they have accumulated from their own purchases but none of us found it funny that the government is ignoring the needs of students.”
“Our teachers want nothing more than to do the job they love in a productive and safe learning environment. But to be at their best, they need a government that respects educators and puts in place the necessary investments and resources,” she said.
In preliminary discussions with the Niagara Catholic District School Board, Mcarthur said she’s been told some teachers would not continue in their roles helping students in grades 7 to 9 prepare for destreaming, as most of the support has been cut.
“One year on from the government making a big splashy announcement about the importance of destreaming and their commitment to equity, 97 per cent of that funding has disappeared,” she said.
Jennifer Pellegrini, communications officer with the Niagara Catholic board, said the ministry’s decision to discontinue funding for destreaming means it will return eight coaches funded this year back to the classroom this fall.
“While some staff were identified as surplus at their school, Niagara Catholic has no plans to lay off classroom teachers,” said Pellegrini.
As part of the funding restructuring, school boards will now receive operating funds in six areas: classroom staffing, learning resources, special education, school facilities, student transportation and school board administration.
The province said the changes will prioritize transparency, with a new tool available to show the money school boards get and how it spends those funds.
But for Shannon Smith, president of Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation District 22 Niagara branch, the new model is “more restrictive.” Boards will be told how and where to spend money, taking away autonomy to allocate money to identified areas of need leading to “tighter school budgets,” and further cutting of “programs that had very little funding to begin with.”
Since 2018, Smith said there has been a funding decrease of about $1,500 per student, leading to fewer services, resources and support staff for students and schools.
As a growing board, Smith said District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) is looking at “more students and higher needs and fewer adults at the front of the room and that’s not even with the teacher shortage that we’re experiencing.”
DSBN said it is currently working on its 2024-25 budget, with classroom staffing almost finalized.
The board is projecting an increase in both elementary and secondary enrolments, as well as increases in classroom staff to support growth.
Niagara Catholic said its budget process is underway, as well as its annual spring review of staffing. It’s projecting an increase in enrolment for the 2024-25 year, but said it’s “premature to say what (the funding changes) will mean.”
When asked about the unions’ concerns, spokesperson for the minister of education Isha Chaudhuri said the ministry has provided DSBN with more than $565 million in funding, an increase of $19.6 million from last year, for the 2024-25 school year.
As well, it has given Niagara Catholic $283 million, an increase of $4.6 million.
“We will continue to invest in students as we get back to basics by removing distractions in class like cellphones and outright banning vaping,” said Chaudhuri in an email.