Parents and students rally over education funding

Parents and students formed human chains around Quebec public schools Thursday to protest against compressions in education.

This comes a day after French-language school teachers held a one-day strike. The strike involved 34,000 teachers and affected roughly 275,000 students across Quebec.

• French-language teachers' strike gives 275,000 students day off
• Quebec's English school board teachers' 1st strike day likely in late October
• Quebec teachers continue to vote in favour of a strike

Teachers and support staff members joined in as well. 

Stéphanie Richard, the head of the governing board at École Saint-Léon-de-Westmount, said the cuts have a direct impact on students.

"Three quarters of the population at the school doesn't have French as a mother tongue so it has a great impact if we are reducing the services in linguistic support as well as in overall professional services," said Richard.

Everything 'is getting stretched,' parent says

About 200 parents and their children stood arm-in-arm in front of the school. Parent Mike Lee said that resources are being cut across the board.

"Class sizes are getting bigger. The school is getting kind of crowded, with less resources available – computers and other resources," said Lee.

Everything "is getting stretched," he added.

More than 300 schools said they would participate in human chains organized by the non-profit group Je protège mon école publique.

English-language schools are expected to hold their first strike day in late October.

Quebec teachers have been without a contract since April.

Main points of contention:

• Province wants to increase teacher-student ratio.
• Province wants to eliminate funds allocated toward schools' programs for special-needs children.
• Province wants to cut 800 resource-teacher and special-education teacher jobs.
• A salary freeze for two years (teachers are asking for 13.5 per cent over three years).
• Cuts to employee pension plans.