To the Editor:
Parents and teachers are covering off more and more in the classroom. The extra costs piling up on parents and teachers by this government have to stop.
The start of the school year should be about excited kids getting new opportunities, but, increasingly, for parents and teachers it's about opening their wallets to pay extra time and time again, replacing things the government no longer helps with.
The government should make affordability a priority. Instead, the government has made cuts in classrooms, underfunded schools and left families and teachers who are already paying much more for the basics every month to fill the gaps.
Teachers often spend literally hundreds of dollars to outfit their classrooms with educational supplies, while parents are pulling out their wallets again and again at back-to-school time. Parents have always paid for running shoes and new backpacks - but today, parents are shelling out for extra supplies for classrooms that are bare, plus tutoring and extra help for their kids in classrooms that no longer have an educational assistant.
In this economy, back to school should be a little easier for hard-working families, not harder.
Trent Wotherspoon
NDP deputy leader and critic for education
