York Communities For Public Education (YCFPE) is appalled by a PressProgress report that found Minister of Education Stephen Lecce engaged in deplorable Anti-Black racist behaviour while he was a fraternity leader at Western University. Minister Lecce’s involvement in a slave auction fundraiser raises serious concerns about the Minister’s understanding of Anti-Black racism, and his ability to serve, protect and support students, education workers, and families, particularly those who identify as Black.

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!

We have been hard at work rolling out #SafeLearnOrNoReturn. We are asking all families and education workers to fight with us. Our main asks are more funding for small class sizes to allow for adequate physical distancing in classrooms, more funding for transportation to allow for adequate physical distancing on school buses, and more funding for safety protocols.

Link to updated resources and events

On Thursday, February 6 and Friday, February 7, 2020, the elementary school teachers at TDSB and YRDSB will be on strike. For those parents in need of childcare, the York Communities for Public Education is offering camps for elementary school-aged children in solidarity with education workers and educators who are fighting to defend publicly funded education.

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:

We are asking families across the province to attend a picket line to show Minister Lecce and the Ford government that Ontario supports education workers and stand against education cuts.

At every picket line families will be able to sign an education pledge poster that will be delivered to Minister Lecce.

We are also encouraging families visiting picket lines to record a short video of themselves, describing how they feel about the cuts and declaring their support for education workers.

If you are able to visit a picket line, please sign up at this LINK