Today’s fall economic statement is yet another failure by the Ford government. Behind the rhetoric, there are no meaningful new investments in public education. While educators struggle with large class sizes, increasing workloads, and rising violence in schools, the Ford government remains incomprehensibly focused on rewarding well-connected conservative party donors.  

“Once again, student well-being and achievement are sacrificed to benefit Conservative insiders,” says ETFO President David Mastin. “The education funding formula, last fully reviewed over 20 years ago, has systematically failed elementary students and schools. For nearly three decades, special education, programs for English language learners, supports for student mental health, and school operations and maintenance have been chronically underfunded. This is deliberate neglect, mismanagement, and a direct attack on children’s right to a strong public education.”

In 2017, ETFO released seven recommendations to fix Ontario’s education funding formula based on economist Hugh Mackenzie’s research report, Shortchanging Ontario’s Students: An Overview and Assessment of Education Funding in Ontario. The province has ignored every one of the Federation’s recommendations: 

Since the formula’s introduction, funding for special education has shifted from needs-based bottom-up funding to formula-based funding with no direct link to individual students’ needs. This has had profound implications for students, educators, special education staff, and administrators, as reported in Promises Unfulfilled: Addressing the Special Education Crisis in Ontario. 

“Ontario’s broken funding formula is a key reason educators and school boards face constant challenges,” says Mastin. “The provincial government refuses to take accountability for decades of underfunding. Instead, they blame trustees, who are forced to balance budgets that can never meet student needs. The math is simple: a flawed formula based on outdated data, combined with rising inflation, equals decades of underfunding and harm to students. This is not the thriving public education system every child deserves.”

It is well past time for the Ford government to stop deflecting and start fixing. Ontario students deserve a funding formula that actually meets their needs, not one that sets them up to fail. 

To find out how much funding has been cut to individual schools across Ontario, use ETFO’s new searchable tool on BuildingBetterSchools.ca.