The frustrating part of this class size debate is that it's not JUST the money. It's capacity. To get down to 15 students per class, we would need 30-35 thousand more teachers and the equivalent of 1000 new schools to house them, which are just not available.

The $3-5 billion to pay for this becomes the easy part. Finding the staff and space, when neither are available, is the impossible part.

Then there is the white privilege. We know Covid is more prevalent in poorer neighbourhoods. These areas should get the extra funds to bring class sizes down. The money allotted could easily deploy more resources to the poorest 10-20% of schools at greatest risk.

Instead, the progressives are saying the Rosedale kids, who are at a lower risk of getting Covid according to data, should be treated the same as the Jane/Finch students when the latter are at greater risk. That's the genius public policy position of the NDP-Liberals-unions.

Putting this together, we don't have the capacity to do what the trifecta wants, but we do have capacity to pour resources into schools that need them, with enough resources to help with wild fires in other schools as they occur. That is the Ford Plan. Boards like TDSB get it.

Ford's plan is the most comprehensive in the country. It was developed with public health experts, which I am not. Distancing, masking, cohorting, public health nurse hiring are all part of the plan. There is hysteria in other provinces too, with a fraction of the protocols.

We could have class sizes under 15 with hybrid class instruction, which has been rejected by stakeholders and parents.

We could also pull spec ed teachers, resource teachers, music teachers, etc., and give them classes, but then we take away that makes our schools great. And, once they're gone, do they come back? I'm not sure stakeholders and parents would back that plan. See the trend?

There are choices. No plan is perfect. Even if we do the one thing we don't have the capacity to do, people will complain. A TDSB survey shows 23% of parents will keep kids home with smaller classes, down only *6%* from normal class sizes. Spend $5 bil and 1/4 still won't attend!

I'll let the scientists tell you the risk between infection and class sizes. It's clearly the other piece. But, if classes of 15 are better, understand the capacity issues and ask whether the difference in health risk is proportionate to the massive policy response required.