Fight For Our Future: Why Climate Justice Is Education Justice
The fall has exemplified how the Ontario government continues to fail public education and reinforced for your provincial Executive the importance of ETFO members being organized and engaged, particularly as we head into collective bargaining next year.
The recent passing of Bill 33 demonstrates a staggering misdirection of government focus. Instead of funding public schools and equipping students with the resources and supports they need to be successful, the government is preoccupied with dismantling community representation. This fixation on restructuring governance distracts from the urgent crises facing our students, including a rapidly changing climate. While the government centralizes power over our public schools, it neglects its fundamental duty to prepare the next generation for the unstable future it is inheriting.
It is this vacuum in leadership that drew ETFO to participate in this year’s Canadian Labour Congress delegation to COP30, the United Nations' annual climate conference. In November, I was proud to stand with the labour delegation, fighting for what our own government will not: a future where climate justice is understood as inseparable from education justice. Our goal was to push governments to prioritize quality climate education and to invest in the funding necessary for climate-resilient schools.
In classrooms across Ontario, the climate crisis is not a theory – it is our students’ lived reality. They breathe it in the haze of wildfire smoke and carry it as anxiety about a future that feels increasingly unstable. Our duty as educators is to not only share what we know, but to teach the critical thinking skills and inspire the hope needed to navigate this challenge. In Ontario, we are doing this work despite the provincial government, not with its support.
Like other aspects of our underfunded public education system, our school buildings tell a story of neglect. Schools that should be models of sustainability and resilience are often crumbling, energy-inefficient structures. The chronic underfunding of infrastructure means “greening our schools” relies on the volunteer heroics of staff and parent councils, not on a coherent provincial plan. We are at a crossroads, and Ontario must recognize the opportunity in front of us. We could lead the way by implementing a much-needed infrastructure renewal of our public education system, retrofitting our schools to reduce emissions and increase energy efficiency, while simultaneously future-proofing them for a changing climate.
My experience at COP30 was both sobering and galvanizing. I saw that the failure to prioritize climate education is a global crisis, but the collective power of educators is a formidable force for change. Standing with union leaders from every continent, I learned that the gaps in Ontario’s curriculum and the lack of investment in greener schools and support for our teachers are not isolated issues, but part of a systemic, global failure by many governments to treat education as a cornerstone of climate justice. We are not just advocating for better resources; we are part of an international movement demanding that governments fulfil their duty to every child.
Across Ontario, educators are doing their very best to teach students to be critical thinkers; to apply a lens of regeneration, sustainability and equity; to understand how their lives are connected to all living beings; and to foster the creativity that will ultimately help them combat fear with agency. But our public schools also need the government to make major investments in green school infrastructure and dedicated training, resources and support for teachers.
The climate crisis is here. Our students feel it every day. They deserve a public education that engages critically and hopefully with the world they will inherit. They deserve a government that listens to science and to the passionate advocacy of their teachers – a government that funds classrooms, not takeovers.
– David Mastin
