A safe place to learn and a safe place to work
Students and their parents have been waiting far too long to hear what will happen in September when the school year is set to begin. Since the government hasn’t unveiled a plan for the fall, earlier this week, we did.
We all want students in classrooms and a safe in-class experience needs to be front and centre in our plans for this Fall.
There can be no meaningful discussion about reopening the economy without a safe full day school for students. We cannot put families in impossible situations. It will force parents to choose between their children’s education and their employment, in many cases. That’s not a plan.
✅ Cap class sizes at 15
✅ Create 14,000 new classrooms
✅ Hire 15,000 additional educators & 10,000 additional caretakers to support our students
In the absence of a plan from the government I’ve put forward a fully costed plan that works.
We’re calling for immediate action to hire thousands of educators and create new classrooms in order to protect full day school.
We need to provide parents with the support they need in order for them to re-enter the workplace and as a result, the only way to truly reopen the economy. We need to ensure schools are a safe place to learn and work. That’s why we’re calling for the number of classrooms and educators to be dramatically expanded.
Our Back to School proposal puts forward a number of actions to protect student and families:
- Create new classrooms by tapping into unused spaces: community centres, government agencies and office buildings, convention halls, and more.
- Create an education command table that would include parents’ associations, school boards, teachers’ federations and others.
- Hire back and train up recently unemployed or underemployed teachers and Early Childhood Educators to staff those new classrooms.
- Set standards across Ontario.
- Ensure proper support so marginalized communities can excel.
- Facilitate assistance for students with disabilities.
- Create new financial support for parents with children that cannot reenter the classroom for medical reasons.
- Keep parents informed with regular updates.
We cannot afford to shortchange students so we must be bold to get students back safely into classes and parents back to work.