Education workers and community allies from across Windsor-Essex will rally Wednesday afternoon outside of MPP Andrew Dowie’s office as part of a province-wide day of action.
Union leaders say the demonstration is calling on the Ford government to increase funding and staffing levels for publicly funded education.
Mario Spagnuolo, the local president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO), says more than 255,000 education workers across Ontario are taking part to draw attention to education cuts.
"All we see are cuts after cuts. We have teachers asking for textbooks. We have students that are not having access to the resources that they need. Our special education programs have been cancelled," he said.
"We're hearing from other parts of the province about the cuts to staff for next year already."
He said the concern goes beyond today’s classrooms.
"We are trying to get the community to understand the impact that this is going to have on children and their learning," Spagnuolo said.
He added that the union wants parents and community members to take action after the rally.
"We are just asking our parents and community members to contact their local MPP. In this case it's Andrew Dowie, but Anthony Leardi in the county," he said.
"Bill 101 is also out there which is going to have a changes to the way that local education governance takes place and we're concerned about that as well."
Introduced earlier this month, the province's Bill 101 would give the province more control over school boards by standardizing governance, reducing the number of trustees, and restructuring director roles.
Spagnuolo said school trustees are welcome at the rally which gets underway at 4:15 p.m.