Education and Training
A Place to
Grow Up
An elected Liberal government will:
- Build and repair schools with $10 billion funded by scrapping Highway 413
- Hire 10,000 teachers for smaller class sizes
- Offer an optional Grade 13 to give students a chance to catch up
- Reinvest in OSAP and eliminate interest on student loans
Build and repair schools with $10 billion funded by scrapping Highway 413
No matter where our kids grow up, they deserve a great education in a safe school. We’ll invest $10 billion more in building new schools across Ontario and making sure classrooms are safe and in good condition – including ventilation. To pay for this, we’ll scrap the Ford Conservatives’ misguided Highway 413 project that would shave just 30 seconds off of GTA commutes while paving over important wetlands and farmland.
Hire 10,000 teachers for smaller class sizes
Your kids have a lot of learning to catch up on because of the pandemic. They need their teachers’ focus and attention more than ever – so they can not just teach, but reach them. While the Ford Conservatives try to cut education funding and raise class sizes, we’ll put a hard class size cap on every grade at 20 students across the province and end mandatory online learning. To enforce this cap, we’ll hire more than 10,000 teachers, while adding one new special education worker to every school.
Offer an optional Grade 13 to help students catch up
The pandemic stole so much time and so many learning opportunities from high school students. Many want their high-school experience back. We’ll create an option for all current high school students to take Grade 13 to make up for learning and credits where needed, as well as take new credits in mental health, financial literacy, taxes and more.
Reinvest in OSAP and eliminate interest on student loans
The Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) helps students pay for college and university, but the Ford Conservatives cut the program’s budget by more than half – forcing thousands of students to take on more debt or leave school. We’ll reverse these damaging cuts, giving significantly more grants that students never have to pay back. We’ll also keep tuition costs from rising and eliminate interest so current and future student loans become easier to pay off, while increasing support for apprentices.