Presenter: Yvonne Kelly, Visali Manimaran & Riya Bhatla
Workshop Description
Neoliberalism is alive and well in Ontario. The privatization agenda of the current provincial government is no longer up for debate and students aren’t standing idly by without calling it out. They’ve been through all of it – cuts to education, lack of provincial investment to ensure schools were safe during the pandemic, and the persistent push to online learning, hastened on by COVID, but always part of the agenda to undermine strong, publicly funded, public education. The student panel, leaders in the York Communities for Public Education coalition, will share their experiences over the past 2 years and why they got involved to demand change. They will speak to the power of youth civic engagement, what this moment is teaching us, and what each of us can do to protect the future of public education in Ontario.
Bios
Yvonne West
Community and Partnership Developer – North Regional Poverty Portfolio, York Region District School Board
BSW, MSW (she/her) is a Community Developer and Board Chair of the Social Planning Council of York Region. She is also currently serving as Chair of the Social Planning Network of Ontario. Yvonne is proud to be a member of the York Communities for Public Education coalition along with Riya and Visali. She works as a Community and Partnership Developer with a Regional Portfolio on Intersections of Poverty with the YRDSB. Yvonne is committed to seeing justice and equity realized in education with a focal point on systemic change.
Riya Bhatla (she/her)
is entering her fourth year of Interdisciplinary Social Science and Concurrent Education at York University. She is currently working as a Peer Support Worker at the North York Women’s Centre and Peer Mentor Coordinator at Vanier College. With a passion for teaching and social activism, Riya is also Co-Chair of York Communities for Public Education, a coalition of parents, education workers, students, and community allies working to maintain high quality public education in York Region. In her spare time, Riya enjoys creative writing and going for nature walks with her dog Kobe. She is committed to working towards an equitable and inclusive world for her future students.
Visali Manimaran
Graduated from Tommy Douglas Secondary School in YRDSB and is heading to McMaster for Life Sciences. She is also a Student Representative at York Communities for Public Education and is passionate about fighting for quality public education for all students.