TORONTO – The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) plans to cut around 300 teaching positions this September. Why? “Fewer students.” Explaining the situation, Ryan Bird, spokesperson for the TDSB, told CTV (here) that every spring, the school board reviews staffing needs for the upcoming school year and “This planning helps ensure that every school has the staff required to support the needs of students.” The main factor behind the staff reduction is the decline in enrollment: the TDSB anticipates nearly 5,000 fewer students compared to the previous year.
“When compared to the current number of elementary and secondary teachers in the TDSB, we anticipate approximately 289 fewer teaching positions. It’s important to note that staffing continues to fluctuate right up until the new school year, so these numbers are not yet final,” Bird clarified.
On Tuesday, the Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT) — part of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario — condemned the “devastating staffing cuts by the Ford government,” warning that they will have severe consequences for students, families, and school staff. Representing over 11,000 elementary teachers in the TDSB, the union said it only recently received information about staffing levels for the next school year — information that would normally have been made public in March under the oversight of elected trustees.
“These decisions are now being driven behind closed doors under the direction of Minister (of Education Paul) Calandra and the Provincial Government,” the ETT said.
Minister Calandra emphasized that the cuts are linked to declining enrollment and that any additional reductions involve positions that were not filled in previous years. “These do not include positions of teachers working in the classroom right now,” he clarified.
However, according to the ETT, the proposed cuts affect more than 600 positions: over 480 elementary teaching positions (nearly one-fifth of TDSB staff), all 145 teachers in Model Schools, 72 ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers, and nine teacher-librarians.
“This is a dismantling of essential supports that students rely on every day,” said Helen Victoros, ETT president. “The scale of these cuts will be felt in every classroom and in every community across Toronto. … They will hit hardest in those schools where students already face systemic barriers…”.
The union argues that these cuts, combined with an outdated school funding formula, are part of a broader pattern of provincial underfunding. The Province, however, has a different perspective: it accused the TDSB of financial mismanagement and placed the board under provincial oversight, effectively sidelining its elected governance and entrusting management to a special supervisor.
“These decisions are being made in secrecy, driven by Minister Calandra and the provincially appointed Supervisor Gupta, who has no experience in public education; and now we can see why: they represent a significant departure from what our students need,” Victoros said. She added, “Our students deserve better. Public education should be built on equity, support, and opportunity, not cuts and secrecy to serve the Ford agenda…”.
Meanwhile, Chandra Pasma, NDP shadow minister for Education and MPP for Ottawa West–Nepean, weighed in: she said that cutting over 600 teachers, especially in lower-income communities and ESL programs, represents an attack on equity in the education system.
“Like so many of Ford and Calandra’s cuts, these cuts are going to hurt the most vulnerable students the most. Instead of imposing school board takeovers that allow unqualified supervisors to make decisions in secret, behind closed doors, Doug Ford needs to properly fund education and restore locally accountable elected trustees,” the MPP concluded.
Photo by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay
