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Full-day kindergarten in Ontario may be on the chopping block
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Canada Politics
Ontario's 'full-day" kindergarten program came in with a bang, but may be going out with a whimper.
According to an exclusive Toronto Sun report, Don Drummond, the economist given the job of finding ways to tackle Ontario's whopping $16 billion deficit, will suggest scrapping all-day kindergarten in his report due to be released on Wednesday.
Nearly 800 schools already have all-day kindergarten, which the government has been phasing in since the 2010-11 school year. The government spent $200 million to implement the program and is spending another $300 million this school year, the Toronto Sun reported.
During the last election campaign, the governing Liberals said the all-day program would cost taxpayers about $1.5-billion a year when fully implemented in all 4,000 elementary schools by 2015.
Christina Blizzard of the Toronto Sun notes that cutting the program won't be an easy decision for Premier McGuinty.
"All-day kindergarten was supposed to be the jewel in the crown of his time in office — his legacy, if you will....And while slashing full-day kindergarten will no doubt pain McGuinty deeply — after all, he's the guy who wanted to be known as the Education Premier — the signs say he's prepared to take the tough measures needed to get the province back in the black," she wrote.
"Losing all-day kindergarten will strike at the very heart of the Liberal agenda. We've been living a champagne lifestyle when we should have been buying lager. Now we have to pay the price."
Neither Drummond, nor anyone from the McGuinty government has yet commented on the newspaper report.
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