The North Park Student Newspaper Since 2023
Breaking news: nepo baby hates education
OPINION/EDITORIALS
Maireen Kaur
6/11/20262 min read
Schooling has become a joke. Does that hyperbolic sentiment catch your attention? Good, because it isn’t too far from the truth. Under Doug Ford, education continues to deteriorate in more ways than one and it’s important students realize this. You can’t survive a system you don’t understand, right? From the push towards privatization of the public sector, cuts in OSAP and the general underfunding in education, the downhill slope goes further down.
The most recognizable issue amongst the ones mentioned may be the OSAP cuts, where Ford decreased the funding provided to students from 85% to 25%, which is a whopping 60% decrease. Almost half a million students rely on OSAP, and to suddenly rob such a large percentage of such a service is ridiculous. Ford claims these cuts are happening because too many students are taking “basket weaving courses,” in turn putting certain courses on a pedestal. With this rhetoric, he deems a lot of courses useless on no real basis other than bias. It is especially unreasonable because the STEM courses that he praises so much cost so much more; or as Omar Nusir, a second-year student at Western University, said, “If I listen to Doug Ford’s advice about choosing in-demand fields, I am actually [going] farther into debt."
In general, it seems that more than productive action, the government puts emphasis on symbolic action that amounts to nothing. For example, in March, Ford announced an annual fund of $750 for teachers, framing it as support for students and educators. This came after billions of dollars worth of financial erosion in education, and means practically nothing when you look at it like that. You can’t fix a broken arm with a bandage, can you? Many educators express such concerns, arguing that these funds could be used elsewhere, especially if that elsewhere is the core of the issue—hiring enough teachers for one. Effort is spent not on tangible, meaningful results, but on sweet nothings, for the lack of a better word.
The reason I paint Ford’s efforts as performative is because his actions don’t align with his promises. His greed privatizes all the public sectors it can, it seems, and education isn’t exempt from that. Consider this statistic from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA): “the Ford government has underfunded public education by $6.3 billion through 2025–26.” And now consider this statistic by Statistics Canada: “Between 2018 and 2023,[…] private-school enrolment in Ontario increased by about 11 per cent, compared to about one per cent growth in the province’s public system.” Coincidence? I think not. The rise of private schools’ popularity is tied to the fact that public schools have become inadequate and cannot provide enough for their students. Furthermore, that is directly linked to the massive underfunding Doug Ford has caused in education.
All in all, education is on a downhill slope. The working class is always left with the lower end of the bargain, and this is especially apparent under Doug Ford. But as dire as this reality is, it’s important that we not only recognize it, but also survive in spite of it. Ultimately, the system is rigged against us students, but for our own sakes, we should not let that get in the way of education as a practice. Don’t let the fact that Ford objectively sucks stop you from using your brain, since that’s exactly what he wants.