TORONTO, Ont. – The Toronto District School Board is considering slashing nearly 250 high school teaching positions to tackle a $55-million budget deficit but Premier Kathleen Wynne is making no bailout promise to the board.
Wynne said it is too early gauge that the board — the largest in Canada — cannot handle its budget shortfall.
“School boards have to make their budget decisions as they see fit,” Wynne said Wednesday.
“I believe in the ability of school boards to deliver the programs that are most relevant and in the way that they need to locally.”
“Every year, there are budget decisions and there will be many issues that will be put on the table at the TDSB,” she said.
Wynne — a former Toronto public school trustee — said a lot has changed since former premier Mike Harris’ Tory government.
“We lived in a province where there was a provincial government that really didn’t believe in public education, gutting the programs that had been built up over decades,” she said.
Wynne said the board must face the reality of declining enrollment.
“Across the province — we are and have been — dealing with declining enrollment,” she said.
PC Leader Tim Hudak said the Liberals have overspent on teachers’ salaries for years and are to blame for the board’s fiscal problems.
“The biggest increase in wages actually happened when Kathleen Wynne was education minister and she gave the teachers a 10 per cent plus wage increase at a time that we were in a deep recession,” he said.
PC education critic Lisa MacLeod said the Liberals will be at fault if any teachers lose their jobs.
“Unfortunately, Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals ignored the Drummond report, ignored their own hand-picked economist, who was suggesting to them that they needed to trim some of the issues,” she said.
A staffing report recommends the TDSB cuts nearly 250 high school teaching positions. The board hopes it can be done through retirement and attrition instead of layoffs.
Gas Prices
680News Android App
Weather Guarantee
Advertiser Directory
The government need to tell them this is the real world. TDSB maybe now they will understand what’s happening in the world.
The teacher should get a 10 % rollback of wages and benefits across the board. This is the real world.
Welcome to the real world. No bailout TDSB or offer a bailout to the people of Ontario. Cut the teacher salarys by 10%.
I don’t suppose the Board could share a portion of the cuts?
Welcome to Reality. When people dont require your services (declining enrollment, or transferring to Catholic School Board), you shouldn’t have a job. Its not our fault you provided sub-par service for many years, yet got increases in salaries when people faced 0% rate increases. This is a problem that resulted from poor budgeting, forecasting and planning. Glad that it finally does come around full circle. See you on the unemployment line.
Hey, here’s an idea… put the brakes on full-day kindergarten for now – that’s what the Drummond Report suggested as a way to trim $2 billion. McGuinty never wanted FDK touched because he wanted a legacy to leave behind. That’s called fiscal responsibility. Hudak is a loser for stating that boards have overspent on teacher’s salaries. There’s a price to pay for the quality of public education we receive in this province. But then again, politicians are all about creating a name for themselves in the public forum in an attempt to garner votes from the uniformed, need I say uneducated.
Why don’t we stop teacher bashing and look at how the TDSB mismanages funds. The waste is astronomical. At my school this year alone it cost 10,000 to paint one classroom. Two cinderblock walls were built to frame a kindergarten coat rack (I can just imagine what the board trades people charged for that!). We got all new exterior doors when the soild wood ones original to the school functioned better than the new ones. We had a wall knocked down to open up two classrooms for full day kindergarten. This room then needed to be plastered, sanded, primed and painted. Thousands of dollars needed to be spent to buy materials for all the new kindie classrooms. We are now experiencing a shortage of rooms so I am sure portables are in our future. We should also remember that Chris Spence walked away with at least 200,000 he didn’t even earn!!!