Education minister faces heat at election debate

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This article was published 23/08/2023 (793 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Teachers let out groans of frustration as the education minister touted the Tories’ record on funding public education during an election panel hosted by their union Wednesday.

Education Minister Wayne Ewasko, NDP education critic Nello Altomare, and Ian MacIntyre, a Manitoba Liberal Party candidate — all of whom are former teachers — sparred over issues affecting kindergarten to Grade 12 during an hour-long debate at the Delta Hotel.

Each candidate was asked to weigh in on subjects ranging from K-12 funding, school nutrition programs and LGBTTQ+ student rights, as well as share their respective priorities for the sector.

The primary concern among teachers heading into the Oct. 3 provincial election is adequate funding levels to improve schools as both workplaces and learning sites, said Manitoba Teachers Society President Nathan Martindale, who represents upwards of 16,600 public school educators in the province.

“The stress that they’re under is related to funding, whether it’s less support for kids, more children in each classroom, less clinicians,” said Martindale.

The teachers society organized the panel to coincide with the union’s annual end-of-summer conference in downtown Winnipeg.

Upwards of 100 teachers and union leaders were in attendance.

Throughout the panel, candidates spoke about the importance of the predictable and equitable distribution of dollars to K-12 classrooms in Manitoba, although none provided specifics on how they would ensure that happened.

“I don’t know what that’s going to look like…because we have to look at the books,” said MacIntyre, who is running to represent the Liberals in Kildonan-River East.

“But I can tell you, it’s not going to come from sending a cheque on the property taxes of (Loblaw president) Galen Weston.”

The Progressive Conservative Party has a “terrible legacy” on funding schools, Altomare said, citing multiple city school boards have scrapped full-day kindergarten programs to find cost savings and River East Transcona trustees are taking out a loan to cover costs for the coming year.

“Overcrowded classrooms. Fewer teachers. Fewer EAs (educational assistants). Fewer librarians — that’s their legacy. A government that has failed to deal with, also, a scourge of childhood poverty and, of course, the scourge that was Bill 64,” said the MLA for Transcona.

The Tory government’s Bill 64, proposed legislation that would have made sweeping changes to the Manitoba public school system, including erasing its 36 English-speaking divisions and redrawing the lines into 15 new regions, was ultimately abandoned after a swell of opposition.

Ewasko dismissed jabs from his opponents and reiterated that the Stefanson government announced a year-over-year funding increase for 2023-24 that is the largest of its kind in at least 40 years.

“The sector has been calling for a funding model review for over 20 years. This is not something that’s easy, that’s going to be done overnight. We’re doing collaboration, we’re doing consultation with school divisions, making sure that we’re getting it right,” the minister said in reference to his office’s delayed and ongoing efforts to overhaul how schools are funded.

The Lac du Bonnet MLA added: “If it was easy, the NDP would have done it in their 17 years, but they didn’t get it done.”

Following one of Ewasko’s speeches — during which members in the audience scoffed and murmured — the moderator, Richard Cloutier of 680 CJOB, urged attendees to be respectful.

MacIntyre of the Manitoba Liberals provided the longest list of concrete promises if elected, including ensuring all children are reading by the end of Grade 2, improving classroom ventilation and creating a plan to install air conditioning across schools.

The career teacher also took the opportunity to criticize his opponents for their shared support for property education tax rebates.

An NDP government would reinstate the elementary school cap on class sizes while ensuring older grade classrooms do not become bloated as a result and come up with a common definition of “equity” to address the impacts of poverty in K-12 buildings, Altomare said.

The Liberals and NDP have both promised to introduce universal school nutrition programs if either comes to power.

When asked about some provinces announcing changes to require educators to obtain parental permission if a child wants to change their preferred name and pronouns at school, Altomare and MacIntyre both rejected the idea outright.

“(My colleagues) are going to try to keep everything a secret from parents,” Ewasko told a crowded conference room.

The education minister said his party is not making any policy changes, but rather taking a look at the Public Schools Act and modernizing enhanced rights for parents.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca