Sol Zanetti gets the education file: he calls for a national uprising against austerity

Solidarity MP Sol Zanetti calls for a national uprising against austerity and education cuts in order to push back the Legault government.

Crowned co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire (QS) in the fall, Ruba Ghazal cedes the role of education critic to the member for Jean-Lesage, who is gaining ground.

Bernard Drainville’s new opponent promises to be the “political arm” of the educational community in the National Assembly. And one of his first fights will be to fiercely oppose the $200 million cuts imposed on schools to replenish state coffers.

“We cannot let him do this, and I believe that we can make him back down on this by putting maximum pressure, both in the National Assembly and in the education sector. I have great confidence that the education sector will rise up,” proclaims Sol Zanetti in an interview.

Services for students, such as food assistance, the purchase of library books and cultural outings, will pay the price for the rigor in the school network. A situation that solidarity deems “unacceptable” for the future of Quebec and which deserves a response.

“I think we can envisage a national mobilization,” he said, impatient to speak with the actors of the network. The education community has a balance of power vis-à-vis the minister. I think he needs to use it and get the minister to back down.”

What means of pressure?

QS will support the mobilization, whatever form it takes. Thirteen years ago, opposition to rising tuition fees led to an unprecedented student strike in Quebec, the Maple Spring. Last year, teachers went on strike for several weeks to obtain better working conditions and additional services for students.

MP Zanetti does not want to tell representatives of the educational community what means to take to push Bernard Drainville back. “But I think that a good mobilization is a mobilization which makes the minister aware that if he perseveres with austerity, he will not be able to achieve it, that he will not be able to carry out his plan and that he will have difficulty maintaining his functions and his authority.”

Three-speed school

The fruit of several months of work, Ruba Ghazal will also table, when parliamentary activities resume in the National Assembly, a bill on equal opportunities at school.

She asked her successor Sol Zanetti to convince the government of the need to tackle three-tier schools, school segregation between students whose parents have money and those from disadvantaged neighborhoods or with children who have more ease.

“There is an overload of work in public schools, in so-called ordinary classes, but we cannot fill the positions. There are many teachers who leave before the end of their retirement, we have difficulty recruiting in education faculties, and the unequal system in which we live is a fundamental cause,” argues the parliamentary leader of solidarity.

Haroun Bouazzi “will be there”

In addition to this transfer of files, other changes to the QS shadow cabinet are expected later this week, during the MPs’ caucus serving to prepare for the start of the parliamentary term.

Will MP Haroun Bouazzi, whose declarations on the presence of racism in the National Assembly aroused passions in the fall, be demoted and lose his responsibilities in matters of the economy and public finances? and energy? Ruba Ghazal limited himself to saying that he will be present at the meeting of solidarity elected officials on Thursday.