As the Ford government celebrates investing nearly a billion dollars in new schools this fall, critics are slamming the province for ignoring the repair bill for rapidly aging existing schools.
From leaky roofs to broken boilers, Ontario schools are facing a lengthy to-do list that comes with $16 billion price tag, with Toronto’s tab sitting at $4.5 billion. Despite that, the province is celebrating building 25 new schools and 16 school additions that are set to open this fall.
“The minister is being pretty disingenuous to talk about the new schools but not talk about the more than $16 billion repair backlog,” says NDP MPP Education Critic Chandra Pasma.
The government spent $889 million to build the new and renovated schools across the province, six of which are in Toronto. They say it will create almost 18,000 student spaces and almost 1,700 child care spaces to support growing communities.
“To me, it’s not record spending, this is record neglect,” says Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario President David Mastin. “I’m sure that they feel this is a better place to put their precious, precious rare public dollars into public education than to actually fix some of the crumbling infrastructure that we’ve got.”
The government says it is also investing a total of $30.3 billion in education funding this year, which they describe as a record investment. But critics say when adjusted for inflation, it will mean less funding per student this year than in 2018, and a total shortfall of $6.3 billion.
“And the myriad issues that result from those education funding cuts, like large class sizes, teacher shortage, not enough mental health supports, special education program cuts and all of that contributing to a rising crisis of violence in our schools,” adds Pasma.
The government says it is addressing that ballooning repair backlog, committing $1.3 billion annually to school capital funding. They also recently appointed supervisors to take control of five school boards, including the Toronto District School Board, to address concerns related to growing deficits and financial mismanagement.
