Monthly Archives: June 2018

Outdated school regulation makes traffic worse in our big cities

June 29, 2018

As Ontario cities grapple with terrible traffic on our roads, our politicians examine how to improve moving people around our city. One way is to walk more. But many children in our urban centres can’t walk to school because they are barred from their local school. Why? 

Growth areas in Ontario cities are not given access to the same funds from developers as other regions of the Province are. These funds are aptly named Education Development Charges (EDC’s). They are outdated. As a consequence: school boards cannot put additions on schools in order to house new students, cannot build new schools as they are needed and are maxed-out in portables littering their fields. 

Buying a condo? Better check if the local school takes kids from that condo!

Thousands of children who could walk to school in Toronto are driven to school, clogging roads in school zones.

Other results of old-fashioned EDC regulations?

• over 100,000 students in #Ontario are in substandard building conditions: portables

• only students in suburban school boards (that have available land) benefit from EDC’s

• our cities loses local schools & local playgrounds as school boards are forced to sell buildings by Prov. Gov’t, even if there is a temporary drop in enrolment, and even if they know that the building will be needed in a few years

• children in new developments are barred from their local school & must be driven to a school some distance from their home

• public assets are being sold by Provincial Gov’t, but not to the highest bidder

What can you do to reduce traffic on your city? Write to your local MPP to change the EDC regulations so that all students in Ontario are provided “adequate accommodation” as the Education Act requires. If developers are choosing to build in a certain area, in large part it’s because of good schools their buyers can go to, so surely to goodness if a developer is benefitting . . . then they should contribute back.

Will Doug Ford’s PC government protect the $1.4-billion per year funding for school repairs?

June 25, 2018

The PC education platform was scant, at best.

It made no mention of addressing the $15.9-billion of disrepair that plagues Ontario’s publicly funded schools nor did it mention fixing the flawed provincial education funding formula that has allowed our schools to accumulate such a gobsmacking level of disrepair. They would have been well served to dig back in the PC archives to read the 2002 Rozanski report, commissioned by the last PC Minister of Education, and still an incredibly relevant document today in terms of pointing the way forward for public education funding in this province.

As per the PC “Plan for the People“, here is what the PC party has committed to do over the coming four years:

  • Get back to basics: Scrap discovery math and inquiry-based learning in our classrooms and restore proven methods of teaching.
  • Get back to basics: Ban cell phones in all primary and secondary school classrooms, in order to maximize learning time.
  • Focus on the fundamentals: Make mathematics mandatory in teachers’ college programs.
  • Fix the current EQAO testing regime that is failing our kids and implement a standardized testing program that works.
  • Respect parents: Restore Ontario’s previous sex-ed curriculum until we can install a new one that is age appropriate and based on real consultation with parents.
  • Uphold moratorium on school closures until the closure review process is reformed.
  • Mandate universities to uphold free speech on campuses and in classrooms.
  • Provide an additional $38 million in funding for all children with autism, above and beyond the funding already in the government’s plan.

Our new provincial government has not promised to ensure that Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. In fact, they do not mention protecting the $1.4-billion/year provincial funding for school repairs that we fought so hard to obtain and that is really the absolutely minimum acceptable amount.

When the Fix Our Schools campaign began in 2014, annual provincial funding for school repairs was a mere $150-million/year for all 72 school boards in the province. Our work between 2014-2016 highlighted the need for increased provincial funding for school repairs. Industry standards suggested that a minimum of $1.4-billion/year was needed simply for routine maintenance and repairs on Ontario’s schools and, in December 2015, Ontario’s Auditor-General confirmed this figure, also citing $1.4-billion/year as the minimum provincial funding required for school repairs.

In June 2016, Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government finally did what ought to have been done years earlier, and announced that it would increase annual funding for school repairs to just shy of $1.4-billion. With constant pressure from Fix Our Schools, this new annual level of funding for school repairs was protected by two successive Liberal budgets.

Will Doug Ford’s PC government protect this annual level of funding for school repairs and ensure that a minimum of $1.4-billion per year goes to Ontario’s school boards for school repairs? At this point, we have no idea.

What we do know is that 30% of elected PC MPPs signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge, personally committing to eliminating the $15.9-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools and to developing a standard of good repair for Ontario’s schools. In fact, 47% of all elected MPPs signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge. What we also know is that school conditions matter and that the 2-million children who spend their days in Ontario’s schools deserve to learn in buildings that are safe, healthy and well-maintained.

58 Newly Elected MPPs Pledged to Fix Our Schools

June 9, 2018

Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative party won a resounding majority in Thursday’s election. They promised to restore ‘respect for the taxpayer’. Too bad for the 2-million children in this province who attend publicly funded schools that no respect was promised to them.

In fact, no mention was made in the PC education platform at all about the state of Ontario’s schools and the $15.9-billion of disrepair in these buildings. And yet, 58 of the newly elected MPPs did make a personal commitment to ensuring that a standard of good repair is developed for Ontario’s schools, that funding will be provided to ensure that these new standards can be met and that the $15.9-billion of disrepair that currently plagues Ontario’s schools will be eliminated. Interested in seeing if your MPP-elect made this personal commitment by signing the Fix Our Schools Pledge? CLICK HERE

Notably, 30% of elected PC MPPs signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge, 80% of elected NDP MPPs and 43% of elected Liberal MPPs. Overall, 47% of the MPPs who will be working for Ontarians at Queen’s Park in the coming four years did commit to ensuring Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. So here’s hoping that despite a focus on taxpayers during the election, that when the real work begins – the new PC government will also respect Ontario’s children and Fix Ontario’s Schools.

Before you vote – STOP! Did your local candidates sign the Pledge?

June 6, 2018

Did your local MPP candidates sign the Pledge? CLICK HERE  to find out! All the candidates that are “lit up” in their party’s colour signed the pledge!

As you head to vote tomorrow, please think about the 2-million children in Ontario who spend their days in schools. At the moment, $15.9-billion of disrepair exists in these buildings because of gross and chronic underfunding by successive provincial governments over the past 20 years. There are no measurable standards in place to even specify what constitutes “acceptable school conditions”. We believe this situation needs to change – and so do the candidates who signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge.

As of this morning, 221 candidates from across Ontario had pledged to Fix Our Schools: 85 NDP Candidates, 49 Liberal Candidates, 34 PC Candidates, 40 Green Candidates and 13 Other Candidates have all pledged to Fix Our Schools. This is what we view as the final list of supporters for the Fix Our Schools Pledge.

Think about your kids when you head to the polls!

June 4, 2018

If you didn’t already vote in early polls, when you vote on Thursday, we’d ask that you consider the 2-million children who spend their days in Ontario’s publicly funded schools. We’d also ask that you consider the fact that healthcare and education comprise 60% of Ontario’s provincial budget … so schools and education ought to be a consideration in how you vote.

You can see here which candidates across the province have already signed the Fix Our Schools Pledge to commit to developing a standard of good repair for Ontario’s publicly funded schools and to providing adequate, stable funding so that those standards can be met. Any candidate “lit up” in their party colour has signed the Pledge.