Make no mistake about it: The recent announcement by Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson was less about the number of students in a high school classroom and more about cleverly disguising cuts to "optional" programming, particularly in the areas of languages, the arts and technical education.

The casual observer of the announcement may have been relieved to hear that classroom sizes at the elementary level will remain untouched, while those at the secondary level will grow from an average of 22 to 28. Because, surely 28 teenagers is not too many for a well-paid high school teacher to manage, right? There are teachers in subject areas that would love a class of 28 learners taking senior drama, French or even other engaging subjects like politics.

if only the issue was that - the number of students in a classroom. But, sadly, this was neither the motivation for this announcement nor will it be the actual effect.

What "class size" is about at the high school level are the difficult decisions that schools have to make in the range and diversity of programming offered, particularly with so-called "elective" courses. It will largely be business as usual for math and science, as these classes are filled to the brim with aspiring doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals (if their parents have their way). And English, as a compulsory subject, is safe so long as the government of the day doesn't abandon at least the pretense of the importance of literacy.

However, gone will be the days of Spanish and German classes, and even upper-year visual arts and drama courses beyond the Grade 9 electives. Administrators will have no choice but to cancel courses that attract 20 students on an option sheet in order to maintain their funding average of 28 kids per class. So the 20 students who wanted Grade 11 French will be either forced to take the course online or simply be re-timetabled to "top up" those other classes where multiple sections are offered.

These effects will be felt even more at smaller schools. If enrolment at a secondary school is at or near 1,500 students, much of the elective programming may survive this round of cuts - because that's what these are: cuts. However, schools that number 1,000 students or fewer will really begin to suffer the disappearance of programming whose benefits are the creation of cultured and more well-rounded citizens. One hopes the premier of the province isn't too philistine to recognize that.

In this reduced funding environment, the system can continue to pay lip service to the importance of the well-rounded individual who has a grounding in languages and the arts, without actually running these courses. Rather than explicitly eliminating such programming, class size increases allow the "market" to prevail and lets optional programming simply die on the vine.

As teachers of languages, the arts and tech, we spend as much time defending our programming as we do delivering it. We often get a sympathetic ear from our principals. However, at the end of the day, they can only timetable with the resources that are given.

The Ford government needs to be asked how educated we want our graduates to be. Is it simply about training them to be good worker bees in an assembly line economy, with kick-ass math skills? If it is indeed about "back to the basics," perhaps they could be a little more up front about their intentions.

Rich Gelder is the head of the department of Modern Languages at Dundas Valley Secondary School.