There’s a difference between shaming parents for individual choices to not send their kids to school (uncool) and pointing out that if privileged parents withdraw their kids en masse, it will destabilize public education + force racialized/low-income kids to bear all of the risk.

In the 1990s, the Conservative education minister in Ontario was quoted as saying that he wanted to “create a crisis in public education.” Cuts eroded trust. Right now, I am absolutely certain that @Sflecce is counting on a high level of attrition to reduce class sizes.

My recommendation is that we all say we are sending our kids, full-time and in class. Force the boards and the province to plan for 100% attendance and DEMAND the funding for smaller, safer classes.

Forming home school pods and hiring tutors is a privatized, problematic solution to the current crisis. We need to be in this together and that means fighting for better, safer education for everyone. In the end, if you pull your kid, that is entirely your right.

My main point is: even though the half-baked #onted plan is not nearly enough, it is dangerous to the public education system if we throw up our hands and assume we cannot and will not get more and better. As burnt out as parents are, now is the time to engage, not withdraw.

(I reissued this entire thread because the typos in the original were making me bananas)

Anyway, a Twitter friend saw this in an Ottawa FB parent group. Privileged families hiring an ECE to teach their kids the @OCDSB curriculum. I sure hope they are also fighting for @Sflecce to fund safe schools for all kids.