By Lana Parker, University of Windsor, The Conversation
Back-to-school is around the corner, which means that many parents will soon receive requests from schools to pay fees, contribute supplies or support fundraising activities.
But many families are already shouldering significant financial concerns. This raises the question why Ontario schools have become so reliant on direct fundraising contributions from parents.
Though the Ontario government insists it has never spent more money on education, a closer look at the facts and figures reveals that the budget allocated to education is woefully short of covering necessities.
My research, “Infinite Demands, Finite Resources: A Window into the Effects of Ongoing Underfunding and Trends of Privatization in Ontario Schools,” draws on discussions with educators to share insiders’ perspectives on how underfunding looks and feels in schools.
Increased demands, shortfalls
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released a 2022 report showing that, even amid the increased complexity of teaching during the pandemic, the Ontario government increased class sizes, cut funding and teaching staff and continued to permit the backlog for school infrastructure repair to balloon to nearly $17 billion.
Using the current government’s budget projections, Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office has forecast the education system will see a $12.3 billion shortfall over the next decade.
While some people might ask whether these cuts are a marker of prudent financial stewardship, the numbers once again reveal a different story.
The CCPA report showed that while Ontario had robust GDP growth of nine per cent in 2021 and 6.6 per cent in 2022, Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office found that, in 2017, “overall program spending in Ontario averaged roughly $2,000 per person, per year less than the average of the other provinces.”
In other words, the province has adequate funding, but is choosing to under-serve certain portfolios. For example, Ontario announced in its latest budget it will invest $28 billion on highways over 10 years.
Public investment with future returns
The choice to underfund education is shortsighted because research shows education is a public investment that can generate a high level of future returns.
This under-investment in education has real consequences for the day-to-day quality of schools. Parents who have children with special education needs have long been raising the alarm that their children lack access to adequate testing and supports, which is a direct function of insufficient funding.
Ontario’s principals, teachers and other educators issued an urgent statement in February 2025 advising the public of chronic underfunding and subsequent system challenges that “threaten the very foundation of the education our children and young people deserve.”
How boards are managing shortfalls
My recent research shines a light on the need for more sustainable funding.
The 11 highly experienced educators and one education organizer in my study described how school boards are trying to manage budget shortfalls by asking schools to increase fundraising and by asking school principals to look for private sector contributions.
They discuss how fees are becoming commonplace for extracurricular activities, which places a burden on families.
They decry the loss of materials for school libraries, arts programs and performance spaces. And they warn that the system cannot take many more years of disinvestment.
Full scope may not be clear to parents
Because educators are employed by public school boards and are responsible to the Ministry of Education, they might not be empowered to express their concerns to parents directly. Even parents who participate in school council meetings or fundraising efforts may not understand how much of an issue education underfunding is in their child’s school.
However, with their decades of experience, the educators in my study are unambiguous about the current situation.
One educator shared, “The students who suffer the most are the ones who are in our ESL programs and who are in our special education programs.”
Another noted, “With the formulas that would have been used pre-pandemic, I would have had four and a half, maybe five special education resource teachers and last year I had fewer than two.”
Yet another revealed, “There’s hundreds of kids in our neighbourhood who have never had a music teacher.” Another spoke about playgrounds, noting their board was being encouraged to seek private donations:
“That was part of the message we got the other day: ‘Look over to this school. The
[foundation name] came and built their playground. Maybe y’all should try that.’ We’re being told that we should be seeking out these donations. That’s highly problematic.”
These are losses of public education goods and services that not that long ago would have been available to all children.
As one of the participants noted:
“There are a number of opportunities that used to exist that no longer exist, and then parents get upset because they think, ‘Well, when I was in school, all of this was around. What happened?’ … Really, it’s about the underfunding.”
Province appointing supervisors
Recently, the Ontario government appointed supervisors to some boards, announcing that “investigations showed they each had accumulated deficits.”
In so doing, the government is asserting more control over public education and runs the risk of political partisanship (one of the appointed supervisors is a former Progressive Conservative MPP).
Journalist Wendy Leung with The Local, who has covered the significance of these appointments, reports the move also “hampers public scrutiny over what’s happening at the boards.”
Taking over boards can be seen as a distraction tactic as the government is asking them to meet growing needs with fewer resources.
Instead of increasing funding, which is necessary and long overdue, the government is likely to cut costs in the short term by privatizing services, a trajectory researchers have documented for some time. These shifts to the private sector are shortsighted attempts to balance a budget that only serve to raise the taxpayer burden over time.
People in Ontario — and across Canada — should be proud of our public education systems. They are held in high regard globally. But education requires ongoing financial investment in our children’s futures.
It took robust political will to compel governments to offer free public education to all children.
This history suggests it will take ongoing pressure from parents applied directly to the Ministry of Education, or via engagement with school councils and school boards, to demonstrate their desire for fair and sustainable public schooling and ensure governments do not shortchange education.
In this way, support for children today will be improved, and the proud inheritance of public education will be strengthened and viable for generations to come.
Lana Parker, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Windsor
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
