Toronto Centre Parents for Public Education, Urban Alliance on Race Relations and Hispanic Mothers with Autistic and ADHD Children Ontario Urge #TDSB Trustees to vote NO to an austerity budget for public education!

The Ford government’s removal of 1.4 billion from Ontario’s budget for public education has forced public school boards to cut public services in order to deliver the required balanced budget. We believe that the TDSB should refuse to cut public education on behalf of the Ford government. The explanations and justifications are false and mask the true impacts of the cuts. The reality is that the cuts to deliver a balanced budget are devastating for our public schools and the students who rely on public school support the most. We call on Trustees to vote NO.

Video

In addition to increased class sizes and a significant loss of high school programs, a balanced budget requires cuts to outdoor education, student supports (psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists, etc.), cuts to libraries, cuts to music in schools, international language programs and much more. The cuts will deepen the already existing inequality among schools and students, and rip the best parts of school out of our public schools. The cuts will disproportionately impact Black, Brown and Indigenous students.

The cuts set up parents to fight each other for the crumbs left on the floor. The response to these cuts cannot be a false choice between busing for French Immersion schools and maintaining speech-language pathologists, or outdoor education, or safe buildings.

Our collective responsibility lies not only in the well-being and success of our own children and the continued funding of the programs they benefit from but in the success and well-being of all the children in our city and our province. We are powerful when we act in solidarity, and together we can fight these attempts to dismantle our public education system.

Students have said no to these cuts, parents have said no to these cuts, and education workers have said no to these cuts. We stand united. Trustees should refuse to perform the impossible task of balancing an underfunded budget, and instead join our demand for the reinvestment in our school system that all students deserve.

We are asking you, our Trustees, to fight these cuts outright. Fight harder, be brave and take bold action because students deserve a fully-funded, equitable education system in this city.

The TDSB votes on the budget on June 19th. Contact your School Board Trustee to urge them to vote NO before June 19th.

Latest posts

UARR Outreach ​ UARR Statement on the Criminalization of Pro-Palestinian Dissent and Protest and on the Rising Antisemitism across the Country

The Urban Alliance on Race Relations joins many Palestinian, Muslim, Arab and Jewish organizations in condemning the exponential rise of discrimination against Palestinian, Muslim, Arab and Jewish communities across Canada.

As an organization committed to fighting racism, we oppose the criminalization of peaceful anti-racist advocacy and protest. Currently, we are seeing the targeting and demonization of racialized communities, with several Canadian leaders making statements equating them with “terrorism”. As we’ve previously seen during the so-called “War on Terror '' after 9/11, and Canada’s seige of Kanien’kehá:ka, this framing promotes state policies and practices severely limiting human rights and civil liberties for Indigenous and racialized populations. We also observe that suppression and reprisal against anti-racist and anti-colonial advocacy is a hallmark of the system of white supremacy. We call on Canadian leaders to acknowledge, apologize for and address harms caused by such statements. These harms include drastically rising anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab hate incidents on our streets, in workplaces, and in schools.

We simultaneously condemn the recent violent and hateful attacks against Jewish schools and places of worship. We should all be concerned when the safety and wellbeing of Jewish communities is threatened as they exercise their rights to freedom of worship, and freedom to visibly express their religious affiliation and identity. An attack on one of us as we exercise these rights is an attack on us all.

Canada is a member state of the United Nations and as such has an obligation to uphold international law. We believe this is a time for empathy, dialogue, and learning about the detrimental impacts of settler colonialism, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, anti-Palestinian racism, and Islamophobia.

Statement Regarding May 14 Attack

The Urban Alliance on Race Relations expresses deep sorrow in response to the May 14 white supremacist attack in Buffalo, New York. 

We honour those who lost their lives to this heinous act of violence: Roberta A. Drury, Margus D. Morrison, Andre Macknil, Aaron Salter, Geraldine Talley, Celestine Chaney. Heyward Paterson, Katherine Massey, Pearl Young, and Ruth Whitfield. 

Share this post

Take action

Connect with us

Email:
Address: 2425 Eglinton Ave E, Suite 214, Scarborough, ON M1K 5G8

Special Thanks to Our Funding Partners

Ontario Trillium Foundation
Status of Women Canada