Dear Premier Ford and Minister of Education,
We are writing as parents who are increasingly concerned about what is happening in Ontario’s publicly funded education system.
Our schools are under enormous pressure, and our children are feeling the effects.
Teachers are being asked to manage increasingly complex classrooms with fewer resources, fewer supports, and growing student needs. Special education needs are more complex than ever, yet the people who are supposed to provide that support are stretched beyond capacity.
We need to ask the government a very simple question:
How can we expect our children to succeed when the adults supporting them do not have the resources they need?
Special education teachers are essential. Educational assistants are essential. Classroom teachers are essential. Smaller, more manageable classrooms are important. Mental-health supports are important. These are not luxuries. They are fundamental to providing students with a meaningful and equitable education.
The provincial government states that special education funding is intended to support teachers, educational assistants, professional staff and other specialized services. Yet educators and parents continue to see significant gaps between the needs of students and the supports available in classrooms.
When special education teachers are pulled away from the specialized work they were hired to do because staffing pressures require them elsewhere, students lose access to important support.
When there are not enough educational assistants, students who require additional support may not receive the assistance they need.
When classrooms become increasingly difficult to manage because of complex needs, large class sizes and insufficient supports, every student in that classroom is affected.
And when teachers are spending more and more of their day trying to manage circumstances that require additional professional support, there is less time available for what they are there to do teach.
This is not about teachers refusing to do their jobs.
Teachers are doing more with less.
This is not about parents expecting special treatment for their children.
Parents are asking for the supports that our children need to learn, participate and feel successful at school.
And this is not about blaming individual school boards, teachers, educational assistants or administrators.
This is about government responsibility.
The recent Province-wide Day of Action involving more than 255,000 teachers and education workers was a clear indication that educators across Ontario are deeply concerned about the direction of publicly funded education. ETFO and other education unions identified large class sizes, insufficient special-education supports, staffing challenges and other pressures affecting schools.
Parents are seeing these pressures too.
We see children coming home frustrated.
We see teachers struggling to meet the needs of every student.
We see students who require additional support waiting for that support.
We see classrooms where the needs of a few students can dramatically affect the learning environment for everyone.
This is not sustainable.
Premier Ford, we are asking you to listen to the people who are actually in the classrooms.
Listen to teachers.
Listen to educational assistants.
Listen to special education professionals.
Listen to administrators.
And, most importantly, listen to parents and students.
We need meaningful investment in:
- More educational assistants
- Adequate special education staffing
- Smaller and more manageable classroom sizes
- Additional classroom teachers and support staff
- Mental-health and behavioural supports
- Timely assessments and interventions
- Resources for students with complex learning and behavioural needs
- Stable, predictable funding that keeps pace with the needs of students
- Time for teachers to teach rather than constantly trying to compensate for missing supports
The government can announce funding numbers and call them “record-breaking,” but what matters to families is what happens inside the classroom. ETFO has argued that the 2026–27 funding announcement does not adequately reflect the actual needs and costs facing schools.
Our children cannot learn on promises.
They need people.
They need support.
They need teachers who have the time and resources to teach.
They need educational assistants who are available when they are needed.
They need special education professionals who can actually provide specialized support.
And they need classrooms where all students have a genuine opportunity to learn.
Education should not be a political talking point.
It is an investment in our children and in the future of Ontario.
We are asking the Ontario government to stop looking at education simply as a line in a budget and start looking at what is happening in classrooms across this province.
The system is under strain. Teachers are telling you. Parents are telling you. Education workers are telling you.
Please listen.
Please act.
Our children deserve better.
Sincerely,