With the release of the Education Quality & Accountability Office (EQAO) results, the education minister is once again reinforcing reliance on standardized testing, continuing the Ford government’s pattern of disregarding the expertise of frontline educators who know what students truly need. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) maintains its call to end this costly testing program and to redirect the millions spent on EQAO into classrooms by investing in smaller class sizes and supports that genuinely enhance student learning and well‑being.

“Educators are struggling with large class sizes, increasing workloads, and rising violence in schools, yet the Ford government remains incomprehensibly fixated on meaningless EQAO results,” said ETFO President David Mastin. “Moreover, Minister Calandra’s ‘deep dive’ delay raises serious questions. If EQAO is supposed to operate as an arms‑length, independent agency, why is the minister intervening in decisions around the release of its results?”

L’Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), Ontario School Board Council of Unions (CUPE-OSBCU), and Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) have issued the following joint statement on the expected passage of Bill 33, the Supporting Children and Students Act:

“Ontario’s schools are facing real crises: overcrowded classrooms, rising violence, crumbling infrastructure, and deep cuts to special education. Bill 33 serves to distract from every one of these problems and will likely only make them worse.

Once again, the conservative government will weaponize its majority, not to serve students, but to silence communities and erode public trust. Bill 33 is nothing more than a hostile takeover of publicly funded education governance and a strategic attack on democracy, dressed up as modernization and accountability.

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.”

As the provincial legislature returns, l’Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA), Ontario School Board Council of Unions (CUPE-OSBCU), and Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) have issued the following joint statement:

The Ford government introduced Bill 33, the Supporting Children and Students Act, earlier this year. It is a regressive piece of legislation that does nothing to support students and everything to consolidate power in the hands of the Minister of Education.  

Our schools are facing a crisis, but not the one this government is pretending to solve. Ontario’s public education system is buckling under the weight of underfunding. Class sizes are ballooning. Essential programs are being cut. Teachers and education workers are stretched to the breaking point. Student needs are going unmet, resulting in learning gaps and growing school violence. Put simply, there are not nearly enough trained professionals or services to properly support our students.