Ontario’s Education Minister isn’t backing down from attacks from the opposition about strike votes that are taking place.
The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario has voted 98% in favour of strike action and conciliated talks have broke down.
Both the Ontario Secondary Teachers Association and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association are holding strike votes.
Stephen Lecce says the government is making changes where they need to be made.
“Our focus, under the leadership of the Premier, is to invest and to defend public education. That’s why we are investing more than any government in history.”
He says “In addition to that public expenditure, it’s also what we are doing with our curriculum to ensure it’s aligned to labour market needs.”
Lecce says they have more than doubled their funding allocation to ensure young people have the strength, resilience and the capacity to go through school, while knowing the system will be responsible and proactive to their needs.”
He points out the government is investing more than $3.1-billion in special education funding.
The money will help ensure that every child will have the support needed to get through school and ultimately find employment.
The move follows the release of recommendations from an Autism Task Force report.
NDP leader Andrea Horwath accuses the PC’s of cutting funding, which is forcing school boards to eliminate hundreds of teaching jobs.
