School board urged to refuse budget cuts

Support staff working in Toronto public schools are asking the board to “take a stand” and refuse to implement cuts needed to balance the budget because of provincial funding shortfalls.

John Weatherup, head of Local 4400 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the tens of millions of dollars the Toronto District School Board has to axe will lead to “the cancellation of thousands of student programs, the closure of hundreds of classrooms, the displacement of thousands of students and layoffs among hundreds of education workers who provide the services that students and schools rely on.”

Doing so, he said, will “hurt the city’s children, families and communities.”

Last week, the board revealed it is facing much bigger clawbacks than expected — a total of $67.83 million — because of changes by the Ford government.

CUPE’s plea came the same day Premier Doug Ford told a radio station that he is “not a big fan of the school boards.”

He said his government is “reviewing them because that is one of the biggest wastes of money you could ever imagine.”

Ivana Yelich, a Ford spokesperson, said the government is “committed to supporting the four publicly funded systems here in Ontario.”

The PC government, she added, “inherited a $15-billion deficit, and given 92 per cent of our spending is transferred to our partners, including school boards, we need the help of our partners to address the deficit and protect vital services for all families in Ontario.

“That’s why, in the budget, we announced the ‘board modernization task force.’

“This initiative will allow us to work with our school boards to identify ways that we can reduce spending on tasks like administration.”

On Tuesday, Ford announced a $7.35-million pot of money to help municipalities and school boards conduct “line-by-line” audits to find savings of 4 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association has filed notice to begin preliminary bargaining talks. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation did so last month and CUPE did as well, in early May.