Ontario giving elementary teachers $750 cards to buy classroom supplies

TORONTO — Ontario elementary school teachers will be getting $750 purchasing cards starting in the next school year for classroom supplies, Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday.

Ford said he has on numerous occasions encountered teachers at the dollar store who were buying supplies using their own money, and they shouldn’t have to do that.

“The days of teachers having to put their hands in their own pockets to pay for school supplies, those days are done,” he said at a press conference about the $66-million fund.

“I’m just so proud,” Ford added later. “I think this is the greatest thing I think we’ve ever done for public education.”

Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario president David Mastin said teachers will be pleased to see the investment in classroom supplies, but the government shouldn’t toot its own horn too much, as having classrooms well stocked with tissues and pencils should just be a given.

“The government is trying to make us believe that this is a gift that’s being given prior to what is going to be probably a very contentious round of central bargaining,” he said.

“We shouldn’t even be talking about this. This should be a foregone conclusion.”

Education Minister Paul Calandra said the ministry does provide funding that boards use for classroom supplies.

“There are some resources that have been given to our boards to provide funding, on average about $300, but it doesn’t always get to the teachers,” he said.

The province is setting up a website through which homeroom teachers can make their purchases of supplies such as arts and crafts materials, stationery and paper products, posters and classroom decor, and paper towels and tissues. Those materials will come at a reasonable cost, due to the bulk purchasing power of the province, Calandra said.

Teachers can carry over unused portions of their $750.

The government will send teachers a survey Wednesday so they can give input on which supplies they would like to be available through the purchasing website, he said.

Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said the website won’t provide teachers with what they actually need.

“There’s no website that is going to get that young girl in school who needs an (educational assistant) – they can’t click on that,” he said.

“They can’t click on making a class size smaller.”

Calandra has been making waves in the year since he became education minister, putting eight school boards under government supervision and raising the possibility of eliminating the role of trustees at English public boards.

He said Wednesday that he has not yet brought a final plan on trustees or school board governance to the premier or cabinet, but that the eight boards are unlikely to have their supervision lifted any time soon.

Officials from school boards, teachers’ unions, disability advocacy groups and others connected to the education system gathered separately Wednesday calling on Calandra to consult with them before proceeding with governance changes.

“The lack of certainty about school board elections is creating immediate instability for the upcoming election period,” said Kathleen Woodcock, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.

“We’re here to invite the government to work with us to strengthen public education, develop stronger public policy together and maintain the trust our communities place in our world-class education system.”

Debbie King, chair of a provincial Black Trustees’ Caucus, said trustees provide a direct connection to the communities they serve.

“We bring lived experience, professional experience that’s very valuable in representing the issues that are affecting our children and our communities directly,” she said.

Calandra said he is not interested in hearing from trustees advocating to maintain their positions.

“I would suggest to all of those vested interests, the trustee associations, put first students, put parents first, and then give me your advice based on that,” he said.

“If it’s just about saving your job, that’s a non-starter. If it’s about how we can make the system better, then we’ll listen. But it has to be about student achievement, full stop. Without that, then no, I’m just simply not going to listen.”

David Lepofsky, a disability advocate and chair of the Toronto District School Board’s special education advisory committee, said eliminating trustees removes an avenue parents use to pursue accommodations for their children’s disabilities.

If there are problems with the education system, the status quo and abolishing trustees are not the only two options, Lepofsky said.

“Mend it, don’t end it,” he said.

“Let’s find that reasonable middle. Let’s put on hold takeovers of more boards right now. Let’s give a chance for all of us to have some input, and Ontarians to have a say, and let’s give those boards under supervision an orderly, predictable path to restore local democracy.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2026.

Allison Jones and Liam Casey, The Canadian Press