The Ministry of Education refuses to fund any new school builds in Ontario’s North East next year. Although that school board doesn’t see the growth that some urban boards are seeing, they have a huge repair backlog to contend with, just like every public school board in Ontario.

According to the Province’s FCI rating, it would take almost 60% of the entire value of the building to repair R. Ross Beattie Sr Public School in Timmins. As taxpayers, we need to ask, “Does it always make sense to repair old school buildings?” We can positively impact student learning in this province by providing safe, well-maintained spaces to learn in, and as part of this solution we need to consider building new schools.

It will take a visionary provincial government to Fix Ontario’s Schools. Which party will form that government? They’ll need to replace the 346 schools deemed too expensive to repair and build 346 new state-of-the-art schools. Let’s prove that education matters in our province. Schools are essential to our economy and as such must be a priority.

We’re past the first autumn weeks of school and into the darker days of winter. With Parent-Teacher interviews behind us, parents are naturally wondering, “How can we help our kids focus and succeed in school in this difficult season?” The People for Education have done a broad review of research on student success, and have come up with four main steps a parent/caregiver can take:

Have high (moderately) expectations for your child.
That means letting them know that working hard is worth it and will bring success. Let them know that your family values them doing well in school.

Ask them to review their school day with you. The dinner table is a great place to do this, but so is the car, where they can talk to the back of your head and feel more comfortable broaching difficult subjects.
Ask specific questions to get them going. “What’s the best/worst part of your day?”, “What was it like to do……” Give them a child-appropriate example from your day to model good conversation.

Encourage planning and self advocacy. Help them to chunk down activities into doable parts and to ask for help when they need it. “What do you think you could try next time to get that project done on time?”

Read together.  Oddly enough, reading to your child increases the chance of them being a good reader. Read magazines, maps, comics, picture books, non-fiction, newspapers. To get help finding better read-aloud books, try anthologies such as the bestselling, fact-driven “Read-Aloud Handbook”, by Jim Trelease.

In the November 27, 2017 Toronto Star article entitled, “Education Minister asks school boards to notify parents of lead in drinking water in ‘timely manner‘”, the issue of lead in drinking water in schools and daycares in Ontario continues to be explored.

Education Minister Hunter claimed that the Province has a long-term plan to address lead in drinking water at schools and daycares, which includes the increased annual funding for school renewal of $1.4 billion/year. However, Fix Our Schools was cited as saying that this amount is “not enough to address the backlog of various repairs needed at schools across the province.” Indeed, there is a $15.9 billion repair backlog in Ontario’s schools and replacing all the lead pipes that contribute to lead in the drinking water of Ontario’s schools is not included in that figure.

“Ideally, nobody would be drinking out of lead pipes,” said Krista Wylie, the co-founder of the advocacy group Fix Our Schools. But neither school boards nor principals have access to the funding needed to undertake a “huge infrastructure overhaul,” she said.

We heard the following from a head custodian who works with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, which serves rural and urban communities surrounding Peterborough Ontario.

“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 underscores the need for a provincial education funding approach that takes into account differences in geography, demographics and the age of school buildings when it comes not only to school renewal funding but also to operational maintenance funding. It also underscores the need for a provincial standard for building maintenance.

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

This situation is not sustainable. We need to truly fix our schools and also to truly fix the provincial education funding approach in Ontario.

On November 14, 2017, we joined forces with the Campaign for Public Education for a media conference at Queen’s Park where economist Hugh Mackenzie revealed his latest report on the deterioration of Ontario’s schools.

Mackenzie’s report points out that since 2002, the repair backlog in Ontario’s publicly funded schools has increased from $5.6 billion to $15.9 billion – tripling in 15 years. Current provincial funding for school renewal totals $1.4 billion per year (comprised of $1 billion in special School Condition Improvement (SCI) funding + $357 million in regular School Renewal Allocation (SRA) funding). Mackenzie’s report confirms that despite the significant increase in annual provincial funding for school renewal since 2015, $1.4 billion/year is simply not enough to make up for the 20 years when provincial funding was a mere fraction of what it ought to have been. In fact, the report highlights that with current increased provincial funding levels for school renewal, the repair backlog will continue to increase.

What do we need to do to truly fix our schools? Continue reading →

On November 14, 2017, we co-hosted a media conference at Queen’s Park releasing economist Hugh Mackenzie’s latest report about the deterioration of Ontario’s schools. Mackenzie confirmed that even with increased capital funding for schools, the disrepair is continuing to grow and now stands at an appalling $15.9 billion. 

Our media conference and the Mackenzie’s report generated some great discussion in the Legislature between NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, Premier Wynne and Education Minister Hunter. Following is a copy of the official Hansard relative to school facilities from November 14, 2017:

School facilities

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is for the Premier. Schools in Ontario need $15.9 billion worth of repairs just to get them to decent standards for our children. That’s a very big number, with very big consequences. In the summer, that number means kids are in the classrooms sweating in their seats because schools can’t afford air conditioning on hot days. In the winter, which is upon us, it means a second-grader, for example, trying to focus on her math test while fumbling with her winter gloves and parka because the heat is broken yet again at the school. We have to do better for our children in this province. Why did the Premier allow this $15.9-billion school repair backlog to get so bad? Continue reading →