QUEEN’S PARK – Whitby-Oshawa MPP Lorne Coe, Official Opposition Critic for Post-Secondary Education and Associate Critic for Education, said today that the number of community college students who have dropped out due to the Liberal Government’s inaction on the college strike is another shameful blotch on the Liberals’ record.
“Under Premier Kathleen Wynne’s watch, we witnessed the longest college strike in Ontario’s history, affecting over 500,000 students,” said MPP Coe. “The Ontario Progressive Conservative Caucus called on the Liberal Government from the first day of the strike to step in and do everything they could to get students back into the classroom. Instead, the Liberals sat on their hands and waited weeks before taking action.”
Ontario’s community college students lost a historic five weeks of class time due to the strike, and it caused upheaval in the lives of hundreds of thousands of students.
“The result is staggering. We have learned that 25,700 community college students have decided to drop out of community college and put their lives and futures on hold – all because the Liberal Government neglected to step in earlier, and bring students back into the classroom,” stated MPP Coe.
MPP Coe concluded, “this is yet another example of how life is harder under Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals.”
