Ontario teachers demand province increase education funding [Video]

Teachers, parents and students rallied outside Queen’s Park Saturday to call on the provincial government to spend more on education, saying current funding will result in programming cuts that will hurt students.

In the province’s new 2025-2026 budget released last week, the government set aside $30.3 billion, calling it a record investment.

But Mary Fraser-Hamilton, a teacher in the Peel District School Board and organizer with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), says it’s not nearly enough.

“When you actually adjust it for inflation, it’s pennies. But on top of that, we know that the needs in school are so much greater now than they used to be,” she told CBC Toronto at the rally. 

“You have serious mental health needs, violence in schools on the rise, and none of this funding is going to begin to address that,” Fraser-Hamilton said.

Other teachers told CBC Toronto that underfunding is …