Some of the toughest recommendations in the Drummond Report involve education as Ontario searches for ideas to get rid of the deficit.
Don Drummond wrote that class sizes should go up, services decreased and new user fees be put into place.
A proposed user fee for school buses had parents upset on Wednesday.
"It's too hard on the people who don't have the money for that, and they're cutting and cutting everywhere," said Chantal Bigras. "Stop cutting, especially our kids. They need the school."
"That's shifting another burden to the parents," said Vicky Edgecombe.
Other recommendations include increasing class sizes for all grades, changing pension plans so teachers work longer, cutting 25 per cent of school supply funding and removing 9,700 non-teaching jobs.
Ottawa-Carleton District School Board chair Jennifer McKenzie said students with special needs would be hit the hardest by the latter idea.
"The number of (educational assistants) in schools is already quite limited . . . we would prefer flexibility in terms of cuts being made," she said.
Michael Hurley, president of Ontario Hospital Unions, said families would have to deal with a lot more than just education.
"If you live in rural Ontario and your kid takes the bus to school, you may pay for that, If you smoke, you may pay for that. If you're a senior your drug costs will go up," he said. "So all of us who are already taxed are going to see increases in our taxes when our income is being restrained."
The governing Liberals have already said they'll reject one of Drummond's ideas – finance minister Dwight Duncan said full-day kindergarten will not be cut to save $1.5 billion a year.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Catherine Lathem
