Hundreds of Quebec parents say they will take the $100 cheque that the Couillard government promised them for school supplies in its economic statement this month and hand it right over to their kids' schools.
"Some schools are falling a part, and if we don't invest in our education—really, it's the foundation of our society so we need to have educated people," said Catherine Lavarenne, the Ph.D candidate and mother of three behind Plein de 100$ pour l'école publique.
"To have just decent services, we have to fight to have them. So now it's actually a little bit insulting to be told, 'but hey, you're getting $100 now,'" she added.
The idea is simple, she said: instead of pocketing that money, donate it to schools directly. Lavarenne says cuts to education have resulted in shortfalls in services, which impacted her directly when the program supporting her autistic son was nearly scrapped—saved only after two years of pressuring the government.
"For some people, $100 makes a huge difference, we're not spitting on that and it's not a question of saying we're better than others," she explained. "It's more saying, to certain people, $100 on a whole year's income [...] doesn't make that big a difference, but if we put it all together we can do stuff that is interesting and more accessible to a larger group of children."
Since she brought her idea to social media last week, over 500 people have joined her group on Facebook pledging to join her in donating their cheques to local schools.
Exactly how the donations will be carried out has not yet been decided, but Lavarenne said they're lucky to have time to plan before the government's cheques arrive.
"It feels a little bit like what we're trying to do now is the government's work when they're not doing it," she concluded.