Funding critical to plan’s success
The Ontario government did the right thing by committing to all-day, in-class education five days a week for elementary students when school resumes in September.
The reality is that the coronavirus is going to be with us for sometime but getting kids back in school is vital to their development and mental health. Parents also need to return to work. There will be risks but keeping kids in isolation was never the answer.
Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce outlined a plan on Thursday that does not include physical distancing of two metres in elementary schools or reduced class sizes, but instead relies on a combination of protocols, from mandatory masks for kids Grade 4 and up and for all teachers and staff to cohorting, a term for keeping a class of students together and not mingling with others.
Ontario will also rely on daily self-screening of students by parents, as well as enhanced cleaning, additional support from public health nurses and creative timetabling. Parents have the right to keep their children at home and rely on online learning.
The government is putting a lot of faith in this plan, which has drawn the ire of teachers and opposition parties because class sizes are not reduced. The key critique, however, is that the province has not provided enough funding to create the safe school environment for all.
Ford and Lecce proudly touted the additional $309 million they have pledged to hire 500 nurses, 900 custodians, additional teachers, personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and COVID-19 testing.
The government thinks getting kids back to school safely in a pandemic will cost hundreds of millions of dollars but others have put the costs far higher.
Ontario’s Liberal Party has estimated a safe return to school will take $3.2 billion — 10 times more than what the government intends to spend.
There is a huge chasm between these estimates and the truth, as is often the case in politics, lies somewhere in the middle. But certainly the Ford government seems to have badly underestimated what it will take to get two million students back to school just a few weeks from now.
In high schools the province is requiring mandatory masks for everyone and smaller cohorts of roughly 15 students.
In most areas of the province, students will attend classes every day but in large urban boards — including all the Catholic and public schools in Greater Toronto — students will attend classes half-time and learn online from home the rest of the time.
The government had to weigh the risk of COVID-19 spreading among teenagers and their teachers and the effectiveness of online learning. It gave a vote of confidence to online learning that is frankly not earned yet. We can only hope that the atmosphere of learning, established in the classroom every other day, carries over to the home. This spring, students and parents got a front-row seat to the frequent failures of online learning.
The Ford government insists its strategy is based on the most up-to-date science, and undoubtedly some of it is. But the government also cherry-picked the advice that suited it best — and required the least amount of additional funding to implement.
It is relying on masks, for example, as a replacement for the physical distancing that would require more teachers, more space and much more money.
The government is also relying on trust, which has often been a scarce commodity when it comes to education and this government.
This plan requires buy-in from students, families and Ontario’s teacher. And inevitably it will require a much larger financial commitment from the province.