Article content

With Ontario’s teacher unions gearing up for another war on the provincial government — the elementary teachers’ union on Thursday announced an escalating job action campaign starting Nov. 26 — the fundamental question facing taxpayers remains.

Why should they have to keep paying for the financial recklessness of the previous Liberal government in public education?

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or EDITORIAL: Teacher unions are ignoring reality Back to video

In the decade before they lost power, the Liberals hired 14,000 more teachers, an increase of 12.5%, while enrolment dropped by 110,000 students, or 5.2%.

The Liberals left taxpayers holding the bag on a staggering provincial debt this year of $360 billion, making Queen’s Park the world’s most indebted non-national government, to which runaway spending in education contributed.

Seven years ago their own financial adviser, Don Drummond, told the Liberals their spending on education wasn’t sustainable, that class sizes needed to be increased and all-day kindergarten cancelled or phased-in more gradually.