Ontario’s Education Minister isn’t backing down from attacks from the opposition about strike votes take place by teachers.
The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario has voted 98% in favour of strike action and has asked for a no-board report after meeting with a Ministry of Labour conciliator yesterday.
Both the Ontario Secondary Teachers Association and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association are also holding strike votes this month.
Stephen Lecce says the government is making changes where they need to be made.
“Our focus, under the leadership of the Premier, is to invest and to defend public education. That’s why we are investing more than any government in history,” says Lecce.
He says “In addition to that public expenditure, it’s also what we are doing with our curriculum to ensure it’s aligned to labour market needs.”
Lecce says they have more than doubled their funding allocation “to ensure young people have the strength, resilience and capacity to go through school while knowing the system will be responsible and proactive to their needs.”
He points out the government is investing more than $3.1-billion in special education funding.
NDP leader Andrea Horwath accuses the PCs of cutting funding which is forcing school boards to eliminate hundreds of teaching jobs.
