OSSTF District 4 teachers hosted a huge rally to support an unprecedented 114 pink slip notices.
Glen Hodgson, OSSTF District 4 teachers' president, told a crowd of about 200 members, families, and community supporters that "we can do this for three years." Doug Ford wants to aggressively increase class sizes and demand that every high school student take four online courses. Ford has also cut special needs education funding. These changes will deteriorate the quality of education in Ontario. PISA scores (an international standardized test) show that Ontario is near the top in the world. EQAO scores also show that Ontario students have made significant improvements over 20 years. Ontario education is doing just fine. Yet, MPP Fedeli continues to blame education unions for sounding the alarm on potential lay-offs, the Near North District School Board has been left with no choice but to declare 114 high school and 62 elementary teachers (ETFO) out of work come September. School educational support staffs, members of OSSTF as well, will know toward the end of June how much they will be impacted by the Ford agenda.