And A Fool

This week, students across Ontario walked out of their classes. Martin Regg Cohn writes:

On Thursday, more than 100,000 students walked out of schools across the province, not to cut class but to protest class cuts. They rallied against $851 million in foregone funding, which will force students into larger classes as thousands of teaching positions are eliminated by late 2022 — supplemented by more online courses than anywhere else in North America.

“This is about the union bosses telling the teachers and the students what to do,” Ford announced in the legislature before the protests had even begun.

“That’s what the union bosses are doing right now. It’s absolutely shameful that they’re using our students as a bunch of pawns.”

On the radio that afternoon, he went further, blaming “union thugs” for the protests.

That's our premier.  He's full of hot air. But hot air isn't harmless:

He cannot bring himself to tell the truth: That he overpromised on tax cuts and so must now under-deliver on services, shortchanging our students who must now pay the price — to the tune of $851 million and 3,475 lost teaching positions by late 2022.

What will be the consequences of those lost teaching jobs?

Ford’s “Government for the People” is taking people out of the classroom. As my colleague Kristin Rushowy has reported, Ontario’s plan to impose four mandatory online credits is without equal.

Not all students have equal access to the internet or the computer skills required to complete the courses. Ford announced that, with an average class size of 28, “We will have the lowest class size in the entire country.” But the facts tell a different story:

British Columbia’s government website notes its average class size is 22.9 for grades 8 to 12. Alberta’s government website shows an average of 23.2 students for grades 10 to 12.

Obviously, Mr. Ford is a con man -- and a fool.

Image: (CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS)