The Ford government has gone to the trouble of revamping the Grade 10 careers program to teach students all about the exciting opportunities in the fields of science and technology at the same time that it has cut funding for the high school classes they need to pursue those jobs.

That doesn’t make any sense.

But rather than deal with this obvious problem, the newly minted Education Minister Stephen Lecce seems to be working on his head-in-the-sand ostrich pose.

New data from two of Ontario’s largest school boards show students will have fewer class options, including in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math, when they return to high school in September. And yet Lecce maintains those class cancellations have nothing to do with him.

Those are board decisions not ministry ones, he says.

The Toronto public school board and the York Region board, which covers Lecce’s own riding, did not just wake up one day and randomly decide to cancel hundred of classes.

The class cancellations and reductions, which are happening in school boards across the province, have everything to do with the Ford government’s decision to fix a provincial budget problem of its own making on the backs of students.

It has substantially increased high school class sizes — from 22 to 28 students on average — and will fund thousands of fewer teacher positions.

This is just year one of the Ford government’s four-year plan and already school boards are scrambling to maintain the basic courses students need to graduate. The provincial funding constraints have essentially stripped them of their ability to offer smaller classes, which often include STEM subjects in the senior years as well as the trades-related classes because, really, how many teenagers does anyone want working with machinery in shop class at one time?

So the very things the government claims it’s focusing on “to ensure our young people can develop the skills they need in a modern economy,” are at the greatest risk because of its education cuts.

But, so far, the new education minister has somehow avoided seeing that connection.

Indeed, on Tuesday, as he announced funding for summer math help for elementary school students, Lecce spoke about empowering educators and modernizing education to ensure students get “the skills they need to get good paying jobs.”

“Student success is my top priority,” he said.

But how can students succeed when the Grade 12 physics class they need for university isn’t offered? Or the student who struggles in math and needs more attention than a teacher facing a much larger class can give? And what about all the students whose passion for learning is sparked by music or some other elective class that’s also disappearing?

The Ford government cuts will hurt struggling students, gifted students and generally make school a lot less interesting for all students come September.

That does not drive student success. Worse still, it puts the gains that have already been made at risk.

High school graduation rates soared to an all-time high of 80 per cent after the former Liberal government began investing heavily in education. We can’t afford to lose those gains.

The Ford government rarely backtracks on its decisions even when they’re shown to be full of destructive unintended consequences, but it has been known to happen.

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This should be one of those occasions.

Students deserve an engaging high school experience that sets them up for success and we already know how few second chances there are for those who fall off the career path in high school.

The education minister needs to take his head out of the sand before it’s too late.

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