Stand up to the Province

A letter to TDSB trustee Chris Bolton:
Given the the recommendations of the Falconer report, and everything else we know about the value of Educational Assistants, I can't believe that the Board is considering cutting them. Over my 30 tears of teaching, they were an invaluable help to me. I attribute much of the success I had with helping needy children to succeed to the partnership I had with the E.A.'s in my classrooms.
In my final year (last year), my Principal, due to pressures from OFIP, had to pull my E.A. for parts of the day to help out with the Reading program in a Grade 3 class, and also with a Kindergarten class, due to the cuts to the Kindergarten E.A.'s that has already been in place for several years. These measures were quite detrimental to my Special Education students. We should be adding E.A.'s, not subtracting!
It's time to stand up to the Province one more time, and say no to the cuts. The funding formula has to provide adequate support for needy children, particularly in the early years.
David DePoe
cc  kwynne.mpp@liberal.ola.org