Chatham-Kent Leamington Progressive Conservative MPP Rick Nicholls is firing back at what he's calling "fear-mongering" regarding layoff notices that were issued at several public schools in his riding.
The Lambton-Kent District School Board (LKDSB) recently issued 111 of those notices to teachers in the region with officials saying they were anticipating significant reductions in provincial funding because of declining enrolment and increased class sizes.
Lambton-Kent Elementary Teachers’ Federation President Laurel Liddicoat-Newton reacted to that move by adding she and other union representatives were "quite worried and concerned, and teachers are stressed about how they are going to meet these needs of their students next year."
In response to those comments and "a couple dozen" other concerns he has received from constituents, Nicholls issued a release Monday morning, saying the layoff notices at the LKDSB were handed out before the province provided its full breakdown.
"Up until Friday, the school boards didn't have all of the information they needed," said Nicholls, adding the province's plan for education funding includes plans to make sure that frontline teachers will not lose their jobs and that any teacher reductions will be through attrition.
The Ontario government's plan, which was unveiled on Friday, included a commitment of $24.66 billion in education funding to school boards in 2019-2020, a slight increase from the funding that the previously-governing Liberals had committed for 2018-2019. The Ontario government has committed $1.6 billion in this year's education budget is being set aside for attrition protection so that no teachers get fired.
Nicholls said it is also important to note that it is common practice for school boards to issue layoff notices to teachers at this time of the year.
"Layoff notices are a part of the annual process as school boards prepare their budgets for the year ahead," said Nicholls. "What's going on right now has been going on for years... but the thing that concerns me is that... there are certain groups that will fear-monger to try to get the general public in an uproar while these certain groups don't have all of the facts."
Nicholls isn't shying away from the fact that school boards -- especially in rural areas where there is declining enrolment -- will likely face some difficult decisions in the future, though.
The province is planning to "phase out" around 3,400 full-time teaching positions in Ontario over the next four years and Nicholls said that may have an effect on the variety of courses are available.
"To be truthful, there may be some smaller schools... where some students may not be able to get the exact courses that they need," said Nicholls, adding that over the past 15 years, the number of teachers has increased while enrolment across the province has decreased. "We'll do our best to try to help [students to access the courses they need], but it's a serious problem that we're faced with right now with a massive decline in enrolment."
Nicholls said even though the province is planning to phase out thousands of teacher jobs, there will "absolutely" still be a need for more teachers in the coming years.
"When you take a look at the number of people who leave the profession annually, there are 3,500 people who leave the profession annually throughout the province," said Nicholls.
When it comes to supporting rural students and schools, Nicholls pointed out in the release his office issued Monday that the province has launched a new Priority and Partnerships Fund, which will "focus on providing students the opportunities they need to expand their education through outcome-based programs with school boards and organizations."
Nicholls added that "the province is continuing to invest in school repair and maintenance and is increasing funding for special education, indigenous and French-language education."
The provincial government's proposed changes to education were scheduled to be debated in the Ontario Legislature again Monday afternoon.
