Voices

This fall issue of Voice is delivered as educators across the province settle into the new school year, one where we hope we can all focus on recovery and re-building after the years disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We know that women, particularly those that are racialized and dealing with precarity in its different forms, bore the brunt of this pandemic.

The summer issue of Voice is always our women’s issue. It is an opportunity to highlight women’s voices, consider the intersections of our struggles and to talk about the value and impact of ETFO’s women’s programs.

With the summer women’s issue of Voice, we recognize not only the important contributions of ETFO women members but also the differential impacts of the pandemic and all of the cuts from the Ford Conservative government on women and other marginalized groups.

This spring, ETFO launched its first ever podcast Elementary: A Podcast from the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.

The spring issue of Voice is focussed on moving forward and organizing together for the change we want to see. The pandemic has been incredibly difficult for educators and other frontline workers and we all look forward to finally moving beyond it and rebuilding towards a future that centres equity and investment in public education, public services and communities.

There is no doubt that education workers have struggled as a result of the systemic underfunding of public education. Ontario’s failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic turned difficult classroom realities, such as large class sizes, insufficient supports for students, and poor air quality and ventilation, into a dangerous crisis.

I want to begin this column by thanking you and acknowledging how hard you have worked, often under impossible circumstances, to support your students, your colleagues and to deliver the best possible public education across Ontario.