Student co-chair Riya Bhatla was interviewed by Joseph Quigley of Newmarket Today about the latest changes in school safety protocols while school transmissions continue to rise.

Dear friend, Last Monday we held our monthly meeting of the general membership. Today, we're following up with some notes from last week and resources from our discussion.

Dear friend, Our coalition is growing, and we're so glad you're here with us!

York Communities for Public Education is calling on the government to immediately engage with teachers, education workers and other education and Public Health experts to develop a safe, equitable, and well funded plan to ensure the safety of our schools. Ford has left Ontario students without teachers, rocked parents' confidence in school safety, forced school boards into tough decisions and created stressful environments for all.  The Ford Government tell school boards to plan for a return to school without providing sufficient funding, guidance and leadership. Enough is enough.  Ford told Ontario he would “spare no expense” to keep people safe. But the funding is not enough to keep our students and education workers safe - or worse - they’re re-announcements! We need REAL funding NOW.  Enough is enough. #SafeLearnOrNOReturn ACT NOW!

Grade 12 YRDSB student Angel Xing created an original spoken word piece for our Town Hall event last October to encapsulate her personal feelings about the cuts to education. She has since performed and shared it numerous times, to great popular success.

A late fall episode of Politically Speaking: Insights and Issues with Dave Szollosy featured two members of the York Communities for Public Education, Angel Xing and Shameela Hoosen-Shakeel. Both Angel and Shameela spoke on the effects of education cuts and why its hurting kids. Angel, who is a grade 12 student, spoke from her own experience and that of other high school students. Shameela, who is a psychometrist, explained why these cuts are counter-productive to the needs of our children. An additional plus and a must see is Angel's thought-provoking poem " If you cut us do we not bleed?" that she performed during the interview. We have heard from Dave that they have received lots of positive feedback on the episode, particularly about Angel's wonderful spoken word piece. Please watch and share the video! Click the image below to view the video:

Friends, on December 4, 2019, secondary school educators across Ontario (including 33 from York Region) went on strike to stand up for smaller class sizes, appropriate student supports, and to protect public education. Our teachers were not alone at the picket line! They were joined by many supporters including parents, students, and other York Region unions. We thank our teachers for being the front-line defence for our public education. See below for the flyer distributed by our teachers at the picket line which lists what they want to achieve in public education. Help out on social media by tweeting a photo of yourself wearing #RedForEd and also use the hashtags #NoCutstoEducation and #CutsHurtKids! Encourage friends, colleagues, and neighbours to engage in the conversation about what our teachers are striking for. The English version of the information flyer is below, and you can get it in seven languages at https://www.labourcouncil.ca/education

On October 26, Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce announced a revision to the increase in class size for secondary students. While the provincial government had approved a class size hike from 22 to 28 students, this new plan would see 25 students per class on average. (Learn more about how class size averages are calculated.) While this may seem like a generous offer on the part of the minister, the reality is that his revision will result in fewer adults in  our kids' classrooms.  In addition, Minister Lecce's new "offer" comes with fine print! The Ontario Government wants to remove all existing class size caps, which means there will be no limit to the number of students in a class. The Canadian Center for Policy Alternative blog provided some interesting stats on how these numbers will affect our students and teachers. According to the Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) this class increase will see 10,054 fewer teachers in Ontario’s classrooms by 2023-24. CCPA's Behind the Numbers blog shows that in York Region, this means 933 fewer teachers in the next 4 years. You can read the full article here. We need teachers and education workers in our schools. We want the best and brightest staff Ontario has to offer teaching our kids. Ontario student learning will no doubt suffer with these cuts - and in fact, we've heard from many that they already are.     Images courtesy of Behind The Numbers' mapping tool, as found at http://behindthenumbers.ca/2019/10/30/board-by-board-impact-larger-class-sizes/ 

YCFPE has been gaining steam, from word of mouth and thanks to some excellent local media coverage.