It’s an honour for me to rise today in support of education and in support of students. My background and the reason I entered this chamber is because I wanted to come here to support students with special needs who are not getting the supports that they require. It’s because of the Liberal government. They peddled the myth of inclusion but it was a way for them to cut the budget on the backs of kids and place kids into classrooms without support.

When students don’t get the supports they deserve, it affects that child and their future, it affects the whole classroom and it affects the community as a whole. Giving young people the best start in life should be our focus as legislators, and yet, the vote on today’s motion will show the priority of all the members across this chamber.

During pre-budget consultations, the finance committee heard from people across the province who have been raising alarm bells about the alarming rates of violence and mental health needs in education. Kids are struggling—deeply struggling—as a result of this government’s cuts and disinvestments. This government is just simply content to play the fiddle while the ship sinks. Kids are worth the investment, period.

The ETFO Thames Valley Teacher Local has shared statistics which London MPPs have shared with this government. The alarming rate of violence in our schools has shown that, in the month of October, there were 671 violent incidents across Thames Valley. In November, there were almost 700. The current daily average for violent incidents across Thames Valley from September to March of this year is 28.9 incidents per day in schools: almost 30 incidents of violence. These numbers only include reported violence of student on educator. They don’t include student on student or the vast amount of numbers which are unreported as a result of this.

At the finance committee, I had the opportunity to ask the minister why school violence is not mentioned even once in budget 2024. I also asked that question to the president of OECTA, René Jansen in de Wal. I would like to quote them. He stated, “We have been raising” school violence “at the highest levels for” a number of “years. The fact that it doesn’t show up” in budget 2024 “demonstrates that we have haven’t been heard....”

School violence is not in the budget. After we’ve done everything possible and after it’s been in the media, it still doesn’t make it in there. Karen Littlewood, the president of OSSTF, said, “There was a safety blitz that was initiated by the government last year ... we haven’t seen what the data is. We know what our members reported when the inspectors came to the schools, but we don’t know overall what the data was.” Why is it, in Ontario’s education system, that there has to be a freedom of information request to find out what students are seeing every single day within our schools?

This government would peddle poisonous ideas like teacher absenteeism when they are actually ignoring the fact that they are like the people who go out to dinner and skip out whenever it’s time to pick up the bill. There are statutory benefit increases of the Canada Pension Plan and employment insurance which school boards are legally responsible for providing, and yet this government would have them pick up the tab.

School boards routinely make up for special education underfunding that this government has ignored, and educators in my community are making do with as little as $100 per year for their classroom budgets.

It’s time your words matched your actions, government. Stand up for kids. Stand up for education. Invest in young people now for their brighter future tomorrow. Even better, you’ll be able to sleep at night—because I can’t imagine how any government member can look themselves in the mirror and say that they stand up for children if they don’t support the motion today.

Don’t say “absenteeism.” Shame on you.

It’s my honour to rise today to speak in support of this motion. This motion would make school boards whole for the costs that were incurred as a result of COVID. It’s money that the government has—money that was allocated to the government for the relief of COVID—and yet this government is making a choice not to spend it. This official opposition day motion would make school boards whole, and I think it makes a great deal of sense, because that cost and that money would be invested into the education of students.

I want to start by thanking all the hard-working educators, all of the support staff and the administration.

Also, I’d like to thank all of the parents who, through their hard work and their dedication, have kept the education system together and kept their kids together.

As I look back, it did not have to be this way in Ontario. It should not have had to be this way in Ontario. The official opposition brought forward ideas and initiatives time and again for this Conservative government, to invest in smaller, safer classrooms, but this government claimed that there was nothing to worry about. They said that they were following the science—and, news flash, they weren’t, and children suffered as a result, because this government mishandled the pandemic.

Ontario had the longest school closures in North America, and it’s because this government refused to budge on their ideological adherence to larger class sizes. Had they followed the science, there would have been more supports for students; there would have been smaller, safer classrooms—and worse yet, they had the money to make sure that was possible, and they chose not to.

Now we see the impacts of Conservative short-sightedness. School boards were forced to do the heavy lifting that the Conservatives couldn’t do. Mental health needs are staggering, and violence is at an all-time high.

Education is an investment. It is not a cost. Children are worth the time, they’re worth the care, and they are a fiscally prudent investment.

It’s time for this government to stop failing our kids.

What concerns me most, as a former educator, is the funding for special education. Funding for special ed is arbitrary—and it’s very convenient for governments. It has been convenient for Liberals, and it has been convenient for Conservatives, because it lets them off the hook. It lets them spend less. It shows the level of care that this government has for students.

So I urge this government to do the right thing: to make sure that they are spending this money to alleviate the burden on school boards, so that this money can go to the kids who need it most.