Every parent knows that without caring, qualified teachers and education workers, there is no education. Yet this government’s cuts to education funding, their refusal to take action on violence and mental health and their contempt for teachers are driving them out of our schools. There are now 46,000 teachers in Ontario who are certified but choosing not to teach, at a moment when our schools have daily staff shortages.

Why isn’t the Minister of Education doing everything he can to reverse this trend and make sure our kids have the caring teachers they need?

The teacher shortage is connected to the rising levels of violence and the mental health crisis in our schools. One teacher from Waterloo wrote to me: “I’m in a K-6 school. This week so far we’ve had a non-verbal student elope and run off campus, three different students trash three different classrooms, one staff member get assaulted by a student, and two class evacuations. And it’s only Wednesday.”

These aren’t just teachers’ working conditions, Speaker; they are students’ learning conditions. So where is the serious plan to tackle violence in schools?

Interjections.

Our schools are experiencing a violence crisis and it is taking a serious toll on teachers. Some 80% of ETFO members have either personally experienced or witnessed violence. Some of these are life-changing injuries, yet the minister’s plan to address violence is to spend 14 cents per day per child on student safety. That’s just not enough when teachers are already going to school in Kevlar and classes are being evacuated daily.

When will we see a serious plan from the Minister of Education to protect children and workers in our schools?

A quarter of elementary schools and a third of secondary schools have daily staff shortages. There are more resignations than retirements in the education system. High-quality education requires a qualified educator, but this minister is doing everything he can to drive them away.

Parents know that teachers and education workers are the backbone of our education system. Why doesn’t the minister think they deserve respect?

The Minister of Education would rather talk about anything but what’s happening in our schools right now, because the situation is pretty grim thanks to this government. Schools are turning down the heat to save money, telling teachers to bring in their own supplies. Kids with special needs are being sent home because there’s no one left to look after them. Teens asking for mental health support are waiting over a year to see a social worker.

In the face of all this, the Premier is once again proposing education funding for next year that doesn’t keep pace with inflation or enrolment growth. This is another cut, Speaker.

Why does the Premier not believe that children in Ontario deserve a high-quality education and safe, supportive, fully resourced classrooms?

It’s my honour today to table a petition that was collected by members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, with over 500 signatories across Ontario. These petitioners express a concern about what is happening in Ontario’s provincial schools. They note that we have an obligation under the Human Rights Code to equal treatment of all students. Therefore, they call on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to require the Minister of Education to improve transparency and funding for these schools, and to call for a provincial audit into these schools.

It’s my honour to support this petition. I wholeheartedly endorse it, will add my name to it and send it to the table with page Aura.

The petition makes reference to the fact that levels of Ontario Works and ODSP in Ontario are far below the poverty line and do not provide enough income for people actually to be able to support themselves, especially compared to the income security program that we had during the pandemic which was provided by the federal government, the CERB program. Therefore, the petitioners call on the Legislative Assembly to double social assistance rates for people in Ontario.

I wholeheartedly endorse this petition, will ad my name to it and send it to the table with page Brayden.

I am pleased to rise today to table this petition with over 230 signatures, collected by COPE 527, which represents education workers in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. These education workers are deeply concerned about the rates of violence within our schools, which they note are shockingly high, and that many education workers are suffering profound injuries, and yet many of these injuries are going unreported.

But we also know that increasing the number of educational workers in our schools and in our classrooms would help to reduce the levels of violence, making sure that there are enough adults to provide care, that children are not being frustrated and that their needs aren’t going unmet. So the petitioners call upon the Legislature to increase the number of education workers in classrooms across Ontario.

I am very proud to support this petition, will add my name to it and will send it to the table with page Simon.

Staffing shortages are having a severe impact on our schools, robbing our children of the supports they need to learn, to be safe, and in some cases, to even be at school.

As one Ontario principal says, “We are not staffed properly to support students. We can only respond to emergencies....” The Minister of Education has been frantically pointing fingers in every direction instead of taking responsibility and coming up with a plan to fix it.

Where is the plan, Speaker? Will we finally see it in today’s budget?

We have over 40,000 teachers who are qualified, certified and in good standing with the Ontario teacher’s college who are choosing not to teach in our schools because of this minister’s policies.

Meanwhile, we have an attendance problem in high schools because why bother going to school if you’re not going to learn anything today? And more than half of principals say they’ve asked parents to keep their children with special needs home. This is serious, and it deserves a better response than finger pointing from this minister.

So, I repeat, will we see a plan to address staffing shortages in today’s budget?

Under this government, a quarter of elementary schools and a third of high schools are facing daily teacher shortages. Nearly half have daily EA shortages. Instead of fixing the problem, the government invested millions of dollars to try and convince parents that everything is okay in our schools, with ads that the Auditor General said are too partisan and not supported by any evidence. Why does the Minister of Education think it’s okay to spend on partisan ads but not invest in our kids?

Will the Minister of Education support the NDP motion today to ban partisan advertising, like his party promised in 2018?

The government’s underfunding of education has led to an explosion in the use of portables at Ontario schools. This band-aid solution has become so widespread that new schools are opening with portables already in the yard.

Parents and teachers have raised concerns about the conditions in portables: mould, poor ventilation, heating problems, the lack of bathrooms. Does the Minister of Education share these concerns, and will he provide adequate funding for school construction and repairs so that portables can go back to being a temporary fix instead of a permanent fixture?

The conditions in portables aren’t just about health and safety. They also affect learning outcomes. Research shows that the more portables a school has, the lower its test scores in math, reading and writing. If the minister really wants to boost test scores in Ontario, he should increase capital funding so that schools no longer need to use portables. Will we see an increase in next week’s budget, or is the minister’s back-to-basics commitment all talk?

We’re here for this late show debate tonight because this government just won’t take seriously the conditions in our provincial schools. Students, parents, alumni, teachers and advocates have been raising concerns for years. They’ve been trying to get meetings with the minister or the deputy minister but have been stonewalled. Journalists have reached out to get answers and have gotten the blow-off from the ministry.

So earlier this week, I asked the minister what it’s going to take for him to act. Sadly, Speaker, the students, the families, the teachers who are waiting for answers still did not get any. These schools serve children who are deaf, blind, visually impaired and deaf-blind. These are some of our most vulnerable students in Ontario. They deserve more attention and care, not less. But these kids are being forced to learn in horrendous conditions, conditions that no parent in Ontario would find acceptable for their children, and these schools are under the direct control of the Minister of Education. He could change things today if he wanted to.

The minister said he needed to introduce Bill 98 because school boards weren’t doing a good enough job so he needed to have more say on how schools are run in Ontario. Well, here are the schools that he oversees personally, and look what kind of shape they’re in: serious allegations of abuse, discrimination and neglect; severe teacher shortages—in fact, 17% of the teaching workforce—crumbling and unsafe buildings and children not getting access to the facilities and services they need to learn life skills safely; safety plans that are so absurd that when I tell people about them they think I’m joking because they can’t believe that any serious school in Ontario would do this. That’s the minister’s record.

Let’s look more closely at what’s happening in these schools on the minister’s watch. Students are travelling up to an hour and a half to school by bus, but because supervision doesn’t begin until the school day starts, they’re left waiting outside for half an hour when they arrive. They don’t have access to a bathroom, so some students have had to resort to urinating outside. Because they communicate with their hands, they have no option but to take their gloves off even when it’s minus 15 outside. Once they’re allowed in the building, students are being forced into large classes that exceed safety regulations because the teaching workforce has been reduced by 25% over recent years and there are not enough occasional teachers to fill gaps when teachers are sick or on leave. In fact, there are so many staff shortages that students are frequently arriving at their classroom to find a note on the door stating there is no teacher for the day and they’re to go to the library instead. Teachers who provide specific support, such as the special education resource teacher or the oral language teacher, are being pulled from their assignments to cover classrooms instead. If there’s an emergency during the day, a hearing teacher needs to be alerted because there is no way for a non-hearing teacher to call for help, and many of these teachers are non-hearing teachers.

At Ernest C. Drury, such emergencies were initially dealt with by requiring the classroom teacher to leave the room in the middle of an emergency and find another teacher or student to hand a card to. After this system was criticized as ineffective by an inspector from the Ministry of Labour, the school implemented a new system which requires classroom teachers to ring a cowbell, which obviously no deaf or hard-of-hearing student or teacher can hear.

Following a violent incident at one of the schools in December 2022, the Ministry of Labour flagged that student safety plans had not been updated for years. One of the reasons they weren’t being updated was because the special education resource teacher was being called upon repeatedly to fill in for classroom teachers.

Students are also not getting assessments. When the chief psychologist resigned in 2022, he stated in his resignation letter that senior management had removed all of his clinical duties and prevented him from explaining to parents why their children weren’t getting assessments. He further said he was forced by senior management to prioritize care to children whose parents had hired a lawyer or complained to their MPP.

I could go on, Speaker, with another five minutes of disturbing stories about what’s happening in these schools. But let me just conclude with a question. Why, if the minister thinks things are so great in these schools, is the government facing three new lawsuits only a couple of years after the province paid out $23 million to settle two class action lawsuits? Does the minister think that a lawsuit is a sign of success?

For years, this government has been doing everything it can to drive teachers out of our education system: massively underfunding schools and driving up class sizes, refusing to address the rising crisis of violence, suppressing wages with Bill 124, attacking the dedicated professionals who support our children every single day.

Now that the Minister of Education has finally admitted that Ontario has a teacher recruitment and retention problem, what is his plan to reverse the damage his government has caused?

Teachers and education workers have been raising concerns about the labour shortage for years and have offered to meet with the government to identify meaningful solutions that will address the real reasons why workers are leaving our education system.

Will the minister commit today to actually sitting down with teachers and education workers, listening to their concerns, and consulting on solutions before they are announced?

Interjections.

Students at Ontario’s provincial schools are some of the most vulnerable students in our province, yet they are being forced to learn in horrific conditions. There are allegations of abuse, discrimination and neglect; a serious teacher shortage; crumbling school buildings; and absurd emergency response plans.

These schools are the direct responsibility of the Minister of Education. He could change things today if he wanted to. Students, parents, alumni, teachers and advocates have been begging him for years to act.

Will the minister finally take action and do something to protect these children?

—a school with deaf students and deaf staff using a cowbell as the emergency alert system;

—students having class in the bathroom because it’s the only place warm enough to take off their mittens, and they need to use their hands to communicate;

—students only getting assessments if their parents hire a lawyer or complain to their MPP;

—two class action lawsuits in the past 10 years, with the province paying $23 million in settlements, and yet there are currently no less than three new lawsuits filed or pending.

Is this a record that the minister is proud of? What is it going to take for him to finally act?

Our children in our schools are facing incredible challenges. More than half of students say they are depressed about the future, yet only one in 10 schools have regularly scheduled access to a mental health professional. Demands for special education supports is increasing, but the government is refusing to fully fund it. The lack of mental health and special education resources are contributing to an epidemic of violence in our schools.

Why has the Premier cut funding for education by $1,200 per student instead of providing the help our kids so desperately need?

You can’t learn if you can’t even get to school, but thanks to this government’s changes to the transportation funding formula, students across the province are having trouble even getting to school. The problem will be even worse next year if this isn’t fixed now. Costs are going up. It’s hard to find and retain drivers. But the government just isn’t taking these challenges seriously.

Will the Premier commit today to revising his broken school transportation formula and provide the necessary funding to make sure that all of our kids can get to school everyday?

Our kids deserve support, but this government is critically underfunding schools across the province. Despite years of high inflation and the need for greater supports, education spending is down $1,200 per student, thanks to this government.

The minister’s attempts at creative accounting and messaging can’t hide the impact, and it’s our kids who are paying the price. Will the government commit to restoring per-student funding to where it was before their cuts?

Teachers and education workers are united in fighting for better conditions for our schools. They’re looking for more supports for our students with special needs, mental health resources, a strategy to address violence in schools and for an acknowledgement of the staffing crisis that we are facing. Both the elementary teachers’ federation and the Catholic teachers have won strong strike mandates.

Will the minister finally come to the table now and bargain in good faith to protect our kids’ school year?

The only record here is how often the minister can repeat the same talking points while per-student funding is down $1,200.

Our kids deserve the caring adults they need in classrooms, and they also deserve safe, healthy learning environments. We know that clean air improves health, reduces absences and results in better learning outcomes and test scores, yet this government isn’t bothering to monitor, report on and improve indoor air quality in schools. For a government that talks a lot about accountability, they sure have problems showing it.

Ontario School Safety is here today calling for action. Will the minister meet with them and will the government fund an expert air quality committee to oversee air quality in schools?

I’d like to welcome Kate Laing, Heather Hanwell, Suzanne Burke, Mary Jo Nabuurs, Farheen Mahmood and Louise Hidinger—all from Ontario School Safety—and supporting them this morning, Neeya Abidi, Carolyn Marshall, Amanda Mohammed, Kari Raymer-Bishop, Henry Bishop and Jane Hanwell. Thank you so much for coming this morning and advocating for safer schools, and welcome to your House.

The minister is more than happy to dictate rules and practices to school boards when it involves funding that he’s not providing, like on mental health and reading and math. That’s what Bill 98 is all about. But suddenly, here’s something that the minister could do that would actually protect kids, that doesn’t require any resources, and suddenly he’s powerless to act.

Why doesn’t the minister just simply direct all schools in Ontario to fly the Pride flag?

Last week, a letter from a teacher warned that students and staff at Tomken Road Middle School do not feel safe going to school. Tomken Road is far from alone. Violence in our schools is reaching a crisis level, but instead of investing in mental health supports and additional staff, this government offers nothing but platitudes. In fact, school boards are being forced to cut safety monitors and child and youth workers.

What will it take for the Premier to finally make the investments needed to keep students and workers in our schools safe?

Every day, students with autism and disabilities are being excluded from our schools, because the supports are not there to keep them safe at school. We did a survey of parents which shows only a small snapshot of the problem, and shows that at least 78 kids with special needs missed out on more than 555 hours of school in just the past two weeks.

Knowing the extent of the problem is the first step to fixing it. Will the government finally listen to parents, like the parents from the Ontario Autism Coalition, and finally track and publicly report on all exclusions in our schools?

When teachers have to go to school in Kevlar, it’s clear that the government’s approach is not working.

More than two in five ETFO members have suffered a physical or psychological injury because of the increased workplace violence, and this problem will only worsen if we continue down this path.

Our kids need supports. They need EAs. They need access to mental health professionals. And they need a government that actually cares.

Why is this government continuing to dodge responsibility for the structural issues causing violence in our schools?

Violence in our schools is reaching deeply concerning levels. Yesterday, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario reported that 77% of their members have personally experienced violence or witnessed violence against another staff person. Crowded classrooms, lack of supports, and underfunding on mental health are all contributing to this crisis. But instead of addressing this problem, the Premier is busy musing about parents hitting kids at home.

The tools to address this crisis are in the Premier’s hands. When will he invest in schools to protect our kids and create a safe working environment for teachers and education workers?

Thank you to the members opposite for their comments. Let’s talk about this government’s record for a moment. Because what we learned this week is that:

—there are now four fewer high school teachers for every 1,000 secondary students in Ontario than there were five years ago;

—there is $1,200 less per student in funding than under the Liberals, once you’ve accounted for inflation;

—90% of schools have no regularly scheduled access to mental health professionals;

—50% of schools have no access to mental health resources at all; and

—schools across the province have a shortage of teachers and educational assistants.

Why do the members think that school boards are going to be able to deliver more with fewer resources for our students? And why are they talking about school board responsibility instead of ministerial responsibility?