Ontario school boards say provincial education funding is not keeping up with inflation and are warning of looming cutbacks.

Government spending on public services is on the decline in Ontario. And so is transparency. I’m not referring to the murky Greenbelt land deals that turned housing policy into a police matter. I’m talking about the now-common practice of stashing money away in “contingency funds,” which allows the government to manipulate spending, revenues, and deficit figures, turning some financial statements into accounting fiction.

Instead of engaging in meaningful discussions about the future of education in Ontario, we find ourselves entangled in pointless quarrels over the latest out-of-touch remarks from the premier or the education minister. This year, it’s cell phones. Next year, it will be something else. There is always a distraction.

The Fund Our Schools campaign in Toronto continues to call for a desperately needed increase in Provincial funding for education. On April 2nd, over a hundred workers, parents, and students gathered in front of the TDSB headquarters at 5050 Yonge to protest the cuts coming to the TDSB.

The TDSB is making a final plea to the Ford government for a new deal that will help dig them out of a 26.5 million dollar budget hole. But as Tina Yazdani reports, the education minister has accused the board of mismanaging its budget.

Today, members of Elementary Teachers of Toronto, OSSTF Toronto, and Toronto Education Worker Local 4400 gather with members of parent advocacy groups, such as Ontario Autism Coalition, and a broad coalition of supporters to protest the Conservative Government's ongoing cuts to publicly-funded education in the Province.

Members of the public turned out in droves on Tuesday evening for the first of two special meetings at the Toronto District School Board, urging trustees not to raise permit costs, cut programming or reduce staff as they try to balance next year's budget and grapple with a $20.8 million deficit.

Ontario's teacher unions support a move to restrict the number of days retirees can work, saying the province is relying on "Band-Aids and half measures" instead of addressing the ongoing shortage, though school boards are warning the move could mean more cancelled or combined classes.

Ontario schools can't recruit or retain enough teachers thanks to a “mess” created by the Ford government, Ontario’s four teachers’ unions charge.

he Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), and Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) issued the following statement today in support of the decision by the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) not to extend the re-employment limit for retired teachers and administrators from 50 to 95 days.