Ontario Budget Fails Workers and Students — OSBCU Calls for Adequate Funding for Public Education and Urgent Action

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--After a disappointing budget announcement that skimmed over public education, the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) is calling for an immediate surge in funding to address the understaffing crisis in schools across the province. This budget does nothing to address the severe understaffing crisis plaguing Ontario schools.

Despite a reported $2.6 billion increase to Ministry of Education funding, the actual support for school boards, students, and frontline workers remains dangerously insufficient. Funding projections include a meager increase of $100,000 (0.24 percent) in 2026-2027 and $200,000 (0.49 percent) in 2027-2028 — both far below the anticipated 2 percent inflation rate.

While $55.8 million has been earmarked over two years to train 2,600 new teachers, there is nothing allocated to address the severe understaffing crisis impacting education workers. The Ford government also announced $30 billion over 10 years for new schools and childcare spaces — yet provided no plan or funding for the staff needed to support students in those spaces.

"There is a clear crisis in Ontario’s public education system, and it’s students and education workers who are paying the price," says Joe Tigani, President of the OSBCU. "We’re seeing violent incidents disrupting classrooms, exhausted educational assistants, shuttered libraries, and custodial services stretched beyond the limit. This is the cost of chronic underfunding and systemic neglect, and it’s obvious the Ford government isn’t taking this seriously."

The scale of defunding is staggering. According to OSBCU research, school boards were shortchanged by $2.3 billion in 2024-2025 alone due to funding that hasn’t kept pace with inflation and enrolment since 2012-2013, the year that real per-pupil cuts became a recurring feature of education funding. Since the Ford government took office, public education has seen a cumulative funding shortfall of $10.66 billion — a number that grows to $14.44 billion since 2012-2013.

Public education in Ontario is at a breaking point.

“Students deserve the supports they need, communities deserve strong, well-funded schools, and education workers deserve respect and fair working conditions — and we won’t stop fighting until they get it,” says Tigani.

The Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) represents over 57,000 frontline education workers across the province, including educational assistants, custodians, early childhood educators, administrative staff, and more.

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