Ontario’s education minister calls them “responsible decisions” that were made following a detailed look at school board spending, but a provincial student group is warning that at-risk youth are taking the biggest hit in the government’s $25-million cut to specialized programs.“A lot of these programs are there to help students who are more vulnerable — those students will be the most impacted” by the loss of programs, said Amal Qayum, president of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association.“We urge the government, moving forward, to make decisions after consulting all stakeholders, especially students.”On Friday, the PC government sent out a series of emails to school boards, announcing cuts and changes to funding for EPO — “other” education programming — that had been pledged by the previous Liberal government last spring.Focus on Youth, which provided after-school jobs and programming for youth in high-poverty neighbourhoods, is gone, as are $2,500 Speak Up grants, which gave students a chance to make a pitch for an activity or event to help make change in their neighbourhood. A program set up to help teens who’ve dropped out return to school and pursue post-secondary was also on the chopping block, as well as tutoring for struggling elementary students.Read more: School boards ‘blindsided’ as Ford government slashes program fundingOntario educational system failing students with intellectual disabilities: reportOpinion | Edward Keenan: That ‘red tape’ Ford is cutting? It was meant to protect the environment, workers, livesEducation Minister Lisa Thompson said Monday at Queen’s Park that “we have done a lot of work and the decisions that we made regarding EPO reflect our priorities.“We actually have had a lot of foresight and we spent a lot of time working on this initiative and our teams have gone through, for quite some time, l ...
|
