Ontario Liberals Estimate $3.2-B Additional Funding Needed for Safe Return to School

July 29, 2020

On Monday, the Liberal party of Ontario turned up the pressure on Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce to come to Ontarians with a concrete and costed plan for a safe return to school. Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said, “since the government hasn’t unveiled a plan for the fall, I did.”

In the July 27, 2020 Toronto Star article entitled, “Opening Ontario schools safely amid COVID would require up to $3.2-billion in funding for staff, cleaning supplies say Liberals, staff union“, Del Duca said “students and their parents have been waiting for far too long to hear what will happen in September. Living with this uncertainty has caused unnecessary anxiety … Getting our students back to school safely is what kids critically need … and it’s the only way their moms and dads can have peace of mind to return to work.”

The Ontario Liberals released their “Students in schools action plan”, calling on Ford and Lecce to allocate $3.2-billion of additional funding to cover anticipated expenses such as:

  • 17,000 additional teachers to reduce class sizes
  • 10,000 caretakers to keep schools clean and sanitized
  • 14,000 new classrooms in community centres, campuses, arenas, etc.
  • Sufficient cleaning/hygiene supplies and equipment
  • School transportation

Sadly, Ford and Lecce have continued to boast about the inadequate $1.4-B/year funding for school renewal and repairs. Shockingly, they have been urging school boards to tap into that funding to cover costs such as hand-sanitizing centres, and improving building ventilation. However, the $1.4-B/year of school renewal and repair funding has not even allowed Ontario’s school boards to stem the tide on a constantly increasing list of repairs in Ontario’s schools. The repair backlog in Ontario’s schools has ballooned from $15-billion to $16.3-billion over the years when annual funding has been $1.4-B/year – clearly proving that this funding is insufficient – even without the needs demanded by a global pandemic.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) also revealed cost estimates for a safe return to school in September based on their experience in other sectors that have continued working during the pandemic. Laura Walton, who heads CUPE’s school bargaining unit, said there needs to be a 2.1% increase in education spending for the coming year. CUPE’s estimate of an additional $1.49 per student per day (in sharp contrast to Doug Ford’s current proposal of an additional $0.07 per student per day) would total $590-million to pay for necessary items such as:

  • touch-free hand sanitizers in every classroom
  • sanitizer refills
  • PPE
  • Plexiglas for school offices and libraries
  • Opening up unused rooms in schools to accommodate smaller classes
  • Bringing in extra education assistants
  • Hiring one new custodian in each of the province’s 4,800 schools.

CUPE’s estimate of costs did not include the costs of hiring additional teachers to ensure smaller class sizes.

It is clear that there is a financial cost to our students, teachers, and education workers returning safely to schools this fall. As the Toronto Star Editorial Board shared on July 27, 2020 in their piece entitled, “Ontario’s back-to-school plan must come with cash“, “whatever the exact amount, it will be money well spent. As a society, we have to figure out a way to make the return to school both successful and safe. When the province unveils its back-to-school plan this week, it should also provide its own estimate of the cost — and assure Ontarians that it will find the money. Students, parents and educators deserve no less.“