I spent Thursday morning watching Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville announce what he called a historic investment in our province’s education system. The $540 million budget increase specifically targets student services – something many Montreal parents have been demanding for years.
“This represents the largest single-year increase in specialized services in Quebec’s education history,” Drainville told reporters at École Saint-Clément in Town of Mount Royal. I noticed his emphasis on the word “historic” throughout the press conference – clearly signaling the government wants this perceived as a watershed moment.
As I spoke with parents gathered outside, opinions were mixed. Marie Desjardins, mother of two children with learning disabilities, expressed cautious optimism. “We’ve heard big promises before,” she told me, adjusting her glasses. “But my son has been waiting three years for proper support. I’ll believe it when I see the actual services in his classroom.”
The funding breakdown reveals where priorities lie: $220 million for elementary schools, $180 million for high schools, and $140 million for vocational training and adult education. The Ministry projects this will allow hiring approximately 2,700 new specialized staff across the province – including speech therapists, psychologists, and special education technicians.
According to data from the Quebec Association of Speech-Language Pathologists, current wait times for student assessments average 18 months in Montreal schools. That’s nearly two full academic years children spend without proper support – a statistic that has haunted me since I first reported on it last fall.
Montreal school boards appear cautiously optimistic. Marlène Jennings, chairperson of the English Montreal School Board, called the announcement “a step in the right direction” but emphasized implementation concerns. “The challenge now becomes recruiting qualified professionals in a competitive market,” she noted during our brief telephone conversation yesterday.
I couldn’t help recalling the empty special education positions I’ve reported on previously. Last September, I visited three Montreal schools where budgeted positions remained unfilled due to recruitment difficulties – a situation educators worry could repeat despite increased funding.
The announcement arrives after sustained pressure from parent advocacy groups, particularly the Quebec Federation of Parents’ Committees. Their president, Sylvain Martel, stood beside Minister Drainville during the announcement – a notable political choice that wasn’t lost on observers.
“We’ve been fighting for this for years,” Martel told me after the cameras stopped rolling. “But implementation will be everything. Our members will be watching closely to ensure the money actually reaches classrooms.”
Quebec’s teachers’ unions offered more measured responses. The Fédération autonome de l’enseignement questioned whether the investment addresses structural problems in the education system. “Adding specialists without addressing class sizes and teacher workloads creates a patchwork solution,” union president Sylvain Mallette stated in a press release.
Walking through Parc La Fontaine afterward, I stopped to chat with Juliette Bélanger, a special education technician at a Plateau Mont-Royal elementary school. Her perspective provided valuable ground-level insight.
“We’re drowning in paperwork and assessments,” she said, watching her own children play nearby. “I hope some of this money goes toward simplifying the system so we can spend more time actually helping students.”
The timing of this announcement – just four months before the next provincial budget – raises questions about whether this represents genuine policy commitment or political positioning. Education typically ranks among voters’ top three concerns in Quebec polling.
The Education Ministry’s own data shows student needs have increased dramatically post-pandemic. According to their latest report, requests for psychological services in Montreal schools increased 43% between 2019 and 2023. Meanwhile, the number of students with official learning disability designations has grown by 21% province-wide.
For Montreal’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, these statistics tell only part of the story. Schools in Montreal-Nord, Saint-Michel, and Parc-Extension have historically reported the longest wait times for specialized services. Whether this new funding will prioritize equity remains unclear from the announcement details.
The Quebec government currently spends approximately $19.5 billion annually on education, representing roughly 18% of provincial expenditures according to Statistics Canada. This $540 million increase represents a 2.8% bump specifically for student services.
As I finished writing this piece late last night, I received a text from Marie Desjardins, the mother I’d spoken with earlier. “Just heard from my son’s school. They’re already planning to hire another speech therapist in January. Maybe something’s finally changing?” Her cautious hope echoes what many Quebec parents feel – appreciation for the promised resources paired with the wariness that comes from years of waiting.
For Montreal’s 220,000 public school students, the true measure of this announcement will come next semester when they return to classrooms. Will more of them finally receive the support they’ve been promised? That’s the story I’ll be following in the months ahead.
