Ontario education funding formula faces renewed scrutiny today

Ontario’s education community has debated the provincial funding formula for years. Since the Doug Ford PC government took office in 2018, teachers, parents, advocacy groups, and school boards have raised the alarm about chronic underfunding across the public system. Their concern resurfaced after the provincial government released its Fall Economic Statement on November 6^th, 2025. That same day, the 83,000-member Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) issued a press release warning that the province continues to ignore the growing crisis.

ETFO stated that the government offered no meaningful new investment in public education. Educators still face oversized classes and rising workloads while, as ETFO argues, the Ford government prioritizes well-connected political donors. The union pointed to a 2017 report titled Students: An Overview and Assessment of Education Funding in Ontario, which outlined seven recommendations the province has yet to act on:

• Increase special education funding for students with exceptionalities
• Conduct an independent review of the special education model
• Expand access to frontline support services
• Cap grades 4–8 class sizes at 22 students
• Reduce and cap Kindergarten class sizes
• Close the $612 per-pupil gap between elementary and secondary students
• Review the funding formula every five years

ETFO outlined today’s reality in those same seven areas. Special education still lacks adequate funding, and school boards report they cannot meet students’ needs. The province has not completed an independent review. Staffing for frontline support (counsellors, psychologists, social workers) remains far below what students require. The government has not put class-size caps in place. Kindergarten classes continue to climb. The funding gap between elementary and secondary students remains wide, and since the 2002 Rozanski Report, the province has not fulfilled its promise to review the formula every five years.

Teachers’ unions also raised concern about major changes to the per-pupil model in 2018 and again in 2024. Then-education minister Stephen Lecce announced a new structure for the 2024–2025 school year. The Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), representing about 55,000 CUPE members, released a statement opposing the shift. Despite inflation projections of 2.6% in 2024 and 2% in 2025, the province increased per-pupil funding by only 1.86%. OSBCU criticized the renaming of 18 grants into six “funding pillars,” arguing that the change made provincial funding harder to track and less transparent. School boards later hired fewer teachers as a result of reduced funding.

ETFO highlighted the growing shortfall in special education funding through another report, Promises Unfulfilled: Addressing the Special Education Crisis in Ontario. The union noted that since the formula’s introduction, the province moved away from needs-based funding. The new formula created a disconnect between actual student needs and funding levels. According to ETFO, this shift has had profound consequences for students, educators, and administrators.

ETFO President David Mastin stated, “Ontario’s broken funding formula creates constant challenges for educators and school boards. The provincial government refuses to accept responsibility for decades of underfunding. Instead, it blames trustees, who must balance budgets that can never meet students’ needs. The math is simple: a flawed formula based on outdated data; plus rising inflation equals long-term harm to students. Every child deserves a thriving public education system.”

ETFO’s press release ended with a call to action; the government must fix the funding formula rather than deflect responsibility. Ontario’s students need a system that truly supports them, not one that limits their potential.