QUEEN’S PARK — Mike Schreiner released the following statement after 70% of parents indicated their opposition to larger class sizes:
“The government is on the wrong side of this dispute and their campaign to pit parents against educators has failed.
Neither teachers nor parents will endorse a plan to pull thousands of adults out of our schools.
So if the government plows ahead with this class sizes increase, they’ll be doing so against the wishes of 70% of parents.
The Education Minister wants to frame the government’s position as reasonable only because the starting position was so outrageous. Going from an outrageous average class size of 28 students to an unacceptable average class size of 25 students is not reasonable.
Parents are not willing to sacrifice their children’s future after seeing the damage caused by the first year of cuts and thousands of cancelled classes.
If this dispute escalates, the government will have to explain why cuts to education are so important that they are willing to have schools shut down over it.”