Thank you to the member from Windsor–Tecumseh. I worked in alt-ed for the last two years with kids who had dropped out. I think we do have valuable students who get disenfranchised from the academic side of things, who want to feel valued for their hands-on experience. I know a lot of students, I referred them to workplace co-op, and they were able to access this. I do see the value of that.

My concern is that we need to be sure that they’re safe for that, and we need to be sure that the literacy components are adequately addressed. I think we’re facing a major issue with literacy. Because we moved away from phonics and we used a different model, we’re finding high rates of illiteracy in our high schools. So we do need the funding from our Minister of Education to be sure that we can address the literacy gaps that we’re seeing in high-school levels.

I have friends that work there trying to build in the phonics in grade 9 and grade 10. We can’t send them off to the workplace without the tools in their tool box to ensure that they know their rights because they can read a contract properly. I was glad to see that that English requirement was in there.

I believe more in a hybrid model, that we don’t sacrifice the face-to-face, the human point of contact, so that we know how to get that help when we need it, where we need it, because virtual really does leave people out of the conversation. I think if we don’t include everybody, it’s really the most vulnerable who will be negatively affected by this lack of access.

Report continues in volume B.