Cutting away at rural communities | Unpublished
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Stefan Klietsch's picture
Ottawa, Ontario
About the author

Stefan Klietsch grew up in the Ottawa Valley outside the town of Renfrew.  He later studied Political Science at the University of Ottawa, with a Minor in Religious Studies.  He ran as a candidate for Member of Parliament for Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke three times from 2015 to 2021.  He recently graduated with a Master of Arts in Political Science at the University of Carleton.

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Cutting away at rural communities

April 24, 2019

I miss my time from high school, which would not have been as special and memorable with online courses in place of the in-person networking of classrooms.

For those expecting the Doug Ford Progressive Conservatives to cut government as deeply as was done during the Mike Harris years, the recent budget comes as a surprise in continuing to increase government spending. Yet the budget still bites hard, particularly where it proposes cutting back on classrooms.

The Ford government budget proposes to increase classroom sizes from Grades 4 to 12 and for high school students to take four of their courses through the online web. Rather than making government services leaner and more efficient, these cuts arguably instead achieve nothing more than simply passing existing costs of education onto the private citizens of tomorrow.

In-person learning alongside other students, including in specialized and intimate smaller class sizes, is conducive to adolescent learning. It also strengthens community bonds in a way that no online course can, especially in rural small-town settings like with Renfrew County.

There are wiser but bolder cuts that could be made to reduce inefficiency and duplication in Ontario’s education sector: kill the Roman Catholic school board (and compensate the teachers currently working in it).

The proposed cuts to Ontario’s classrooms are not wise investments in Ontario’s next generation; they are instead short-sighted fiscal gain at the expense of long-term pain to the students of rural communities.

Stefan Klietsch

Renfrew