OSBCU: Ford's Status Quo Education Budget Fails Students, Parents, and Workers
TORONTO — The Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), representing over 57,000 frontline education workers, is raising serious concerns following the provincial government's 2025 core education funding announcement, which continues to ignore the escalating crises in Ontario's public education system.
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Despite claims of increased funding, the funding announcement fails to deliver the investment needed to address chronic understaffing, systemic deficits, and rampant violence in classrooms across Ontario. Instead, the government's announcement simply maintains the status quo, masking deep structural issues with misleading figures.
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Key budget highlights:
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Total school board funding for 2025-2026 is projected at $30.3 billion — a 3.3 percent increase over last year. However, with enrolment up 0.6 percent and inflation rising, real per-pupil funding is only increasing by 0.3 percent — a minimal change that remains far below what students and schools need.
Apparent increases in funding are predominately due to previously negotiated wage settlements. This funding does not add staff, expand services, or improve student supports.
In the provincial budget released on May 15, the government projected meagre increases to total education funding of $100K (0.24%) in 2026-2027 and $200K (0.49%) in 2027-2028. Clearly this government's long-term plans are to continue to starve the education system of the resources students, parents, and workers need.
Boards are still bracing for job cuts, as this budget is unlikely to change the trajectory of announced job reductions — exacerbating the staffing crisis and undermining already strained school operations.
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'There is a clear crisis in Ontario's public education system and the Ford government has turned their backs on education staff and students in their 2025 budget. There are no major policy changes, no new support for school boards in deficit, and nothing to address the real crisis in understaffing in public education,' says Joe Tigani, President of the OSBCU. 'This budget isn't just disappointing — it's dangerous.'
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While the Ford government's budget on May 15 announced $30 billion over 10 years for new schools and childcare spaces, it offered no plan or funding for the education workers needed to staff them outside of teachers — a step that ignores the understaffing crisis facing thousands of overburdened frontline education staff across all job classifications.
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'Students deserve well-resourced schools and education workers deserve respect and fair working conditions,' says Tigani. 'That means providing immediate and substantial new funding to address staffing shortages across all education worker classifications, restoring real per-pupil funding to meet actual student and school needs, and implementing a funding strategy that reflects inflation and enrolment. The OSBCU will continue to fight until this government delivers the funding that public education in Ontario desperately needs.'
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