Teachers, students, and parents rallied outside MPP Andrew Dowie's office Tuesday afternoon to protest cuts to education.
The group fears budget restraints will force the the Greater Essex County District School Board to reduce supports for special education.
"The school boards are being forced to look at all programs and one of the programs that they've reduced for next school year in the Greater Essex board is the RISE program, it's called Reaching Individual Success and Excellence. Both that and our learning support programs have been reduced by approximately 21 teachers," said Mario Spagnuolo, local Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario president.
The GECDSB has not finalized its budget for the next school year or any decisions around the RISE program but faces a $9-million deficit.
Spagnuolo said while it will be up to the board if the program gets cut it's the province that ultimately provides the funding.
"Andrew Dowie sits on the government side and that's the government that decided not to keep funding with inflation, in fact, it falls below inflation which is now impacting budgets for next year," said Spagnuolo.