Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As my Member's statement today I will be reading a letter I received from one of my constituents.
As a parent, I would like to say to you, the Minister of Education, the former Minister of Education and the Assembly, the following:
Do any of you know what it is like to teach a child with special needs, along with 20 or more other children in the classroom? I am a parent with a special needs child that is ADHD and I have volunteered my time in the classrooms to help out. As a parent this is not an easy job, to raise a child with special needs. Could you imagine a teacher with just one child with ADHD, ADD, FAS or FAE with no help in the classroom? It would be like trying to teach 40 children all at the same time. In our school a lot of the classrooms are split classrooms. Not only are the teachers frustrated, but the children are as well, not to mention the special needs children. We fail to help them for no other reason than for money. Our children want to learn and are not getting the help they need from their own government. Please do not pass the buck to the next set of MLAs. We need the help now. We are pleading to you for help. Find the money that is needed to help our children, do not tell us there is no money when we hear that $1 million is going to adult education. Put some of it into our young students, and if you do it now, then it will not cost you more in the future. Make sure you know what is important to our future. As a parent and a Northerner, I believe our children's education is our future. I keep hearing that education is very important to our elected officials and yet it is the last to get help.
Our former Minister of Education spent approximately $350,000 on a forum, yet everything that the forum found out was put on the table with Mr. Dent last May by all District Education Council Chairpersons. Do you not think that the money spent should have gone into the classrooms? Do not forget it is taxpayers' money, so do not put us aside. In closing, I would like to thank everyone for listening and I would like you to reconsider your decision and put more money in the classrooms for the benefit of our children.
A parent in need.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
--Applause