Hundreds of protesters lined Christina Street Wednesday to rally against provincial changes to education.
Teachers, students and others upset about increased class sizes and e-learning gathered outside Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey's constituency office at 805 Christina Street North in Point Edward.
Local OECTA President and St. Clair Catholic Secondary Unit President Chad Coene said they want people to know that the cuts being proposed by the government will have a negative impact on students, especially high schoolers.
"We're going to see a loss of programming, and there will be, even if it is phased in over a few years, a loss of teaching positions, and that's not good for kids," said Coene. "We're going to have trouble offering really important programs that develop pathways for all different students when they leave our secondary schools."
Lambton Kent Elementary Teachers’ Federation President Laurel Liddicoat-Newton raised concerns over teacher layoffs after the Lambton Kent District School Board put 111 teachers on notice of potential layoff in September.
MPP Bailey said it may be too early to be talking about layoffs
"I understand a number of surplus or redundancy letters were handed out, but that's something that happens every year, so until all the boards in Ontario know what they're enrollment is going to be, then they can do some calculations. I say let's stay tuned," said Bailey. "Every year in Ontario, on average, there's over 4,000 teachers that either retire or move onto some different role-- maybe go into management like a principal. So there's 4,000 teachers a year that retire or do something different, and those people that leave will open up a spot for a younger teacher."
Coene responded saying the students will suffer whether a teacher is laid off or not replaced.
"Even if through attrition and retirement that you're able to protect the teachers that are currently working, you will still have less teachers in the buildings, and for every teacher that you don't have in the building, six classes are being cut. So if teachers retire and you don't replace them, you're going to end up with less programming available."
Bailey was in Queen's Park Wednesday, but responded to Blackburn News for comment regarding those protesting.
"They're there for different reasons, but I don't know whether they're getting the full story. At the end of the day, our government has that $15-billion deficit that we inherited, and the budget with education and health care were the only two spending envelopes that weren't touched-- there's more money going to them this year than all the other budgets in the province," said Bailey. "All the other departments had to take a hair cut, but education and health care got more funding."
On Tuesday, Ontario's Education Minister Lisa Thompson called teachers unions to the bargaining table.
Coene said all teachers just want to be working come September.
"Believe me when I say that our teachers our dedicated to our students, and we really want to have a great September startup, but time will tell if that's possible with some of these cuts we've been seeing."
Members of AEFO, CUPE, OECTA, OSSTA and LKET were among those that rallied.
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