The Fix Our Schools campaign has often heard from custodians in both rural and urban school boards.
“The lack of funding for maintenance and infrastructure repair creates cascading problems. When we have to close down part of an aging building because we don’t have the funds to maintain or repair it, students get squeezed, and the learning environment suffers. When maintenance and infrastructure budgets are stripped of funds to pay for other vital but underfunded programs – like mandated small class sizes or full-day kindergarten – kids suffer. We know very well that the physical infrastructure of schools contributes to the learning environment of the child.”
This statement is from an Ontario custodian. His sentiments underscore the need for a provincial approach to funding education that takes into account differences in geography, demographics and the age of school buildings when it comes to school renewal funding and also to operational maintenance funding.
We heard from another Ontario caretaker that, “A clean and well-maintained building = better student success and future”.
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Ensuring classroom environments in Ontario’s publicly funded schools are optimum for learning is the reason that Fix Our Schools asked MPP’s to commit to a State of Good Repair Standard for our schools in the June 2018 provincial election. Our call to action resonated for a vast number of MPP candidates and, in fact, 58 elected MPPs in Ontario signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge.
The $15.9 billion of disrepair that has accumulated in Ontario’s schools is due to the chronic and gross provincial underfunding for two decades…
- Underfunding of school renewal
- Underfunding of operational maintenance
- Underfunding of new schools
The conditions in Ontario’s publicly funded schools must be addressed sooner than later and this is going to require a concerted effort by our provincial government and a new approach to funding schools as critical infrastructure. To truly Fix Ontario’s schools, we need an estimated additional $1.6-billion/year.
We know this is a lot of money. We also know that:
- Schools are a critical element of our public infrastructure
- 2 million Ontario children spend their days in school buildings and need safe, healthy, well-maintained, clean places to learn.
- Teachers, education workers, adult learners, and pre-schoolers who attend childcare facilities in local public schools also need safe, healthy, well-maintained, clean environments in which to work and learn.
- Repairs in Ontario’s schools are only going to get more expensive if we do not fully address the $15.9 billion repair backlog as soon as possible. The limiting factor should be, “how quickly can we get people to DO the work … NOT the amount of money available to fix schools”
So if we collectively agree that we value our children and we value their education then we will start to do what it takes to truly fix Ontario’s schools and fix the broken provincial funding approach to education that has allowed $15.9 billion of disrepair to accumulate in Ontario’s schools.