May 2009
Budget 09-10
List of Public Consultations
Numbers (courtesy
of Trustee Atkinson)
TDSB
09-10 Budget Page
My Thoughts
It’s budget time at the Toronto District School Board and, once again, we are facing a significant funding shortfall. A preliminary analysis of the Provincial Government Grants to the TDSB for the 09-10 school year shows a shortfall of $15.7 Million, which, when combined with the current deficit, brings the total revenue gap to $39.3 Million.
How is it that we are in this situation? As many community members will recall, education funding in Ontario changed drastically under the government of Mike Harris. The Province removed the taxation powers of local school boards and took over full control of education funding. They slashed budgets and funded every school board based on the same funding formula – a formula that defined education in terms of regular classrooms with one full-time teacher and 30 or so full-time students.
Education, of course, is not that narrow. Our children use music classrooms, French classrooms, libraries, pools and outdoor education centres; many of our children need varying degrees of special education support; and our newcomer children need English-as-a-Second Language support. All of these things were not included in the Tory definition of education in Ontario and they were not funded.
While our current Provincial government has invested much in education, they have not altered that Tory funding formula. This means that the TDSB is chronically under-funded. Unable to raise its own revenue, the board has annually gone into debt to fund things like aquatic programming which fall outside the provincial government’s definition of education, but which the community (rightly) expects public education to provide.
With enrolment declining, the question of selling under-used schools is being raised. While it might make sense to sell some property, schools were built with taxpayer money as public spaces and they should continue to be used for the benefit of the community. Long-term thinking, rather than a quick-fix solution, will lead us to inter-governmental funding for the re-purposing of school space – schools housing a variety of community services; schools that are true community hubs.
Right now, what is urgently needed is community input. The TDSB is holding
public budget consultations in May. Come out and communicate the depth,
breadth and quality of public education that you are looking for. The consultation
closest to our area is in the evening of May 19th (see below for details).
I hope to see you there.
Public Budget Consultations 09
Monday May 11th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm at Islington JMS 44 Cordova Ave, Etobicoke
Tuesday May 12th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm at Scarborough Education Centre 140 Borough Drive, Scarborough
Wednesday May 13th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm at TDSB 5050 Yonge St. North York
Tuesday May 19th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm at Rosedale School of the Arts 711 Bloor St. East, Toronto