Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker says the education minister is not giving the parents of special-needs students the straight goods on why their children are being told to stay at home.

In today's question period at Queen's Park, Walker again questioned Minister Liz Sandals about cuts to special education, pointing that the cuts have stripped schools in Bluewater District School Board of 50 education assistants and pushed students with disabilities out of the classroom.

"Owen and Noah should be in Grade Six and Grade One respectively, but they are not. In fact, they're at home. They're at home because no public nor Catholic school in Hanover can enrol them, not after the Liberals' budget cut of 50 educational assistants in my riding."

Walker adds he was disappointed the minister touted her education spending plan while ignoring a fact that vulnerable students – some of whom are blind, autistic or diabetic – were being pushed out of the education system.

"It doesn't matter how the minister slices and dices it: Owen and Noah and other special needs students should be in school but are not," Walker says. "This is a violation of our students' most basic right, to attend school and to get an education. Our children need to be our priority."

source: media release, Bill Walker MPP