Quebec’s education minister is asking school service centers to cut $570 million starting next year. He announced this a few days before the end of the school year. Principals are being forced to make cuts everywhere! For example, in my high school where I work as a teacher, we have to cut $700,000. We’ve closed three drop-in classes, and there’s talk of cutting student food assistance, resource teachers and mentor teachers. There’s even talk of cutting the salaries of sports coaches. Special education technicians who need to be replaced will not be, nor will janitors or assistant principals. We were already in “austerity” mode and now the government is literally killing public schools at the expense of more vulnerable students with special needs. A school is a complex ecosystem, and when you cut a service somewhere, the whole team feels it. In this case, all services will be affected.
All this is sparking a wave of protest across the province. The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement (FAE) has called for Minister Drainville’s resignation. The Minister replied that he didn’t need to take any lessons from a union that had held children hostage for 5 weeks (a reference to the 2023 strike), because he was really fighting for the children of Quebec. The audacity!
The parents are rightly worried about their children’s future in the public system. As soon as the cuts were announced, parents and education workers began stirring on social media. Over 100,000 people signed a petition against the cuts in just a few days. Denunciations and cries from the heart are being heard everywhere.
A number of people have taken the initiative to hold rallies against the cuts. Parents, not activists or unions, are taking the lead. Rallies are being organized all over Quebec. For many, these cuts are the last straw.
Attacks on the public system are inevitable under capitalism. The public services that are part of the welfare state are no longer sustainable in a capitalist economy in crisis. The post-war boom is over, and it’s not coming back. We cannot pin our hopes on governments that submit to the dictates of capital and protect the interests of their own class: the bourgeoisie.
-Maire-Éve, Montreal
