The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.43           November 30, 1998 
 
 
Ontario Gov't Backs Off Education Cuts  

BY ROBERT SIMMS
TORONTO - The Conservative government led by Premier Michael Harris in the province of Ontario blinked and retreated from a round of announced cuts to education November 6.

Just eight days earlier, the Toronto School Board had announced a list of 138 schools that it said would close in the next school year in order to implement cuts to education imposed by the Harris government last March.

The 138 schools represent more than one fifth of Toronto's 591 elementary and secondary schools. School boards across the entire province warned they may have to close up to 600 schools to carry out cuts decreed by the provincial Ministry of Education's funding formula for school space and upkeep.

The announcement ignited a firestorm of protest from teachers, students, and parents across the province.

School assemblies, parent-teacher and community meetings were organized or announced in the eight days between the Toronto School Board's announcement and the government's retreat. On November 2, more than 300 parents and teachers protested the closing of Humewood Community School. TV news showed similar meetings in the evenings that followed.

On November 6, Harris announced that the government would inject an additional $200 million into next year's budget to delay implementation of these cuts for at least one year. Provincial elections are widely expected to be called next year.

A November 4 evening meeting at Parkdale Collegiate in west Toronto was typical of similar meetings at schools slated for closing. A school assembly organized October 29, a few hours after the announcement, filled the auditorium with angry students, staff, and parents who heard the news.

The November 4 meeting was originally organized for the teacher committee set up in the wake of the October 29 announcement. But word of the meeting got out, a few posters went up in the neighborhood and 100 students and parents showed up to join the teachers.

Calvin Richmond, the student body president, said, "How are we going to have a better education if the government closes our school down? We're going to fight with everything we've got."

Many of the schools with surplus capacity have day-care centers in their unused classrooms. Some 71 day-care centers are threatened along with the 138 schools.

The level of anger and rapid mobilizations threw the government off balance. Their miscalculation comes in the context of other fights against the Ontario government's cutbacks in education and health.

At the outset of the school year in September, 7,400 teachers in the Greater Toronto Area struck or were locked out over implementation of regulations requiring teachers to take on more students and teaching time.

The Harris government issued legislation ordering teachers back to work after three weeks.

In the fall of 1997, 126,000 teachers went on a two-week strike across Ontario to protest Bill 160, which gave the government arbitrary powers to regulate class size and teacher working conditions, laying the ground for slashing teachers' jobs.

Parents demonstrated their support for the strike, which increased as the strike went on.

 
 
 
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