Learning and Working Conditions Will Continue to Deteriorate<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years, Manitoba\u2019s public schools have been asked to do more with less, and this year\u2019s education funding announcement offers no relief, says the Manitoba Teachers\u2019 Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cClassroom support for next year is below inflation, which represents a decline in real funding. This does not meet growing student needs and does nothing to repair the damage of chronic underfunding in public schools across this province,\u201d said Lillian Klausen, President of the Manitoba Teachers\u2019 Society. \u201cClassrooms have been operating under immense strain for almost a decade. We are now in a crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the past several weeks, the Manitoba Teachers\u2019 Society asked teachers, counsellors, and clinicians a simple question: What does underfunding look like in your school\u2014and what would help right now?<\/em> \u201cWhat they shared should concern every parent and every Manitoban,\u201d said Klausen. \u201cTheir experiences paint a clear picture of a system stretched beyond its limits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It looks like classrooms that are larger and more complex than ever before, almost half of high school teachers report having at least one class with 30 or more students – including multiple learners with significant and diverse needs \u2014 without the staffing or supports required to meet those needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It looks like repeated classroom evacuations, unanswered calls for emergency support, and children with complex needs waiting years for assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cViolence in schools is rising, not because students are \u2018bad,\u2019 but because their needs are going unmet in overcrowded, under-supported classrooms,\u201d said Klausen. \u201cOver half of Manitoba educators report that violence has worsened over the course of their careers, and nearly half experienced threats, physical violence, or attempted assaults in the past year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese incidents are the predictable outcome of class sizes and class complexity that exceed available supports,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When early intervention is unavailable and educational assistants, counsellors, and clinicians are stretched thin, behaviours escalate. When crisis supports are limited or absent, teachers and students are left to manage unsafe situations alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFunding decisions that fail to address class size and complexity don\u2019t just strain educators, they put students at risk,\u201d said Klausen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Underfunding also shows up in student support services, with some guidance counsellors responsible for up to 500 students and speech-language pathologists carrying caseloads of 90 children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are hearing from educators that students with significant needs are spending hours disengaged, sometimes watching YouTube videos, because there is simply no one available to support them,\u201d Klausen said. \u201cInclusion without appropriate supports is unsustainable. Students don\u2019t get what they need, and teachers cannot meet the demands placed on them without proper resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2017, the proportion of teachers reporting more than six students requiring additional support in a single classroom has nearly tripled, from eight per cent to 23 per cent, while resources have failed to keep pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese are not isolated incidents. They are the predictable result of a system that has been underfunded year after year,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd all of this comes at a cost \u2014 teacher burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Educators, she said, are not asking for extravagance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey are asking for the basics: manageable class sizes, appropriate supports for complex classrooms, adequate staffing, timely access to clinicians, safe and sanitary learning spaces, current learning materials, and the resources students need to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minister Schmidt emphasized \u201cstable and predictable\u201d funding in her announcement; funding that consistently falls below meeting student needs may be deemed stable and predictable, but we\u2019re advocating for funding that would provide an equitable and quality education for all students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cManitoba\u2019s students have been waiting too long for adequate support,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is unfortunate that, based on today\u2019s announcement, they will continue to wait while needs continue to balloon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For years, Manitoba\u2019s public schools have been asked to do more with less, and this year\u2019s education funding announcement offers no relief, says the Manitoba Teachers\u2019 Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","post-thumbnail-displayed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3650,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3646\/revisions\/3650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbteach.org\/mtscms\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
More than 200 educators responded directly to the questions. While hundreds more shared, liked and commented with their own stories on the social media posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n