‘It’s still not enough’: High school students walk out, call for reversals to budget cuts | CBC News
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About 150 students rallied outside a Halifax high school Wednesday morning as part of a provincewide walkout in protest of the government’s wide-ranging budget cuts.
Ella Porter, a Grade 12 student at Citadel High School, said she’s concerned about the loss of a program that provided Halifax-area students with free transit passes, as well as cuts to university grants and scholarships.
She said the roughly $14-million reduction to arts and culture grants will hurt the very foundation of the province.
“We are a historical place and without that we would be completely lost,” said Porter.
She said the transit passes have been a vital resource for students in grades 7 to 12 in Halifax, despite the assertion by the province’s deputy education minister that not enough students use it.
The $1.2 million in government funding is being pulled from that program, with $600,000 being diverted to the Department of Opportunities and Social Development, which provides transit passes to students who could otherwise not afford them.
Grayson Finney, a student at Shelburne Regional High School, said around 15 students participated in the walkout at his school.
Finney said he wants to see the government walk back its decision to cut funding for university students in the province.
“Especially from areas like this where most people are on the lower income end, those grants can help them get into college and have a better future,” he said.
Finney said he’s also concerned about cuts impacting the tourism industry, specifically museums like the Ross-Thomson House in Shelburne. That museum was one of 12 sites the province announced last month it plans on closing.
Holding out hope
Back in Halifax, Porter said there’s still hope that funding will be restored after Premier Tim Houston walked back $53.6 million in cuts Tuesday for people with disabilities, seniors, and African Nova Scotian and Indigenous students.
Deputy premier Barbara Adams told reporters this week there would be no more reversals.
That doesn’t satisfy Porter, who said she has a message for the premier: “It’s still not enough.”
“I hope that you know, if you’re listening to this, that we want more,” she said.
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