TORONTO — Thousands of teachers, students and supporters rallied at the Ontario Legislative Assembly here April 6 to protest education funding cuts proposed by the Progressive Conservative Party-led provincial government.
Five unions representing education workers mobilized members from around Ontario, arriving in some 170 buses. Many wore “Red for Ed” T-shirts in solidarity with U.S. teacher strikes.
A few days before, some 100,000 students at more than 600 schools around the province walked out of class to protest the proposed increase in caps on class size from fourth grade through high school.
In previous weeks, walkouts of tens of thousands of university, college, and vocational school students in Quebec and Ontario protested unpaid internships and attacks on post-secondary education funding.
The government proposes to cut 851 million Canadian dollars ($638 million) from the budget and eliminate 3,475 teaching jobs over the next four years. They also plan to require students to take more online courses.