News Clippings April 30-May 7, 2013
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News Clippings April 30-May 7, 2013 Produced by the Communications & Community Relations Department Disadvantaged kids are being short-changed in Toronto schools: Editorial Page 1 of 2 Opinion / Editorials Disadvantaged kids are being short-changed in Toronto schools: Editorial A new report shows the Toronto District School Board is diverting millions from a program to help poor kids. But the real villain here is Ontario’s provincial government. COLIN MCCONNELL / TORONTO STAR A Social Planning Toronto report shows poor kids are being short-changed in Toronto public schools. Published on Tue May 07 2013 Money for disadvantaged kids is being raided by Toronto public schools to balance their books — but that isn’t the worst scandal. Even more outrageous is that this is considered business as usual in Ontario’s education sector. It’s been going on for years. There’s nothing illegal about it. Indeed, Ministry of Education officials help make it happen through the loose way they structure assistance for students facing “demographic” barriers, especially poverty. A new report by Social Planning Toronto shows about two-thirds of a $128-million fund meant to help students overcome demographic hurdles is instead being channeled into general expenditures by the Toronto District School Board. By this measure, about $40 million is actually used to help kids in need. School board officials challenged that Monday, arguing that poor kids directly get most of the money, with only (only!) $40 million shifted to general expenditures. Either way, this arrangement is a win-win situation for both the school board and Queen’s Park. Ontario’s Liberal government gets an opportunity to highlight how much it’s spending to combat poverty. Meanwhile the school board receives millions more for what it really needs — help with keeping the lights on and the doors open. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2013/05/07/disadvantaged_kids_are_being_short... 5/7/2013 Disadvantaged kids are being short-changed in Toronto schools: Editorial Page 2 of 2 The only losers are poor kids. But they’re easy targets. When deprived of millions in publicly promised funding they don’t complain with a very loud voice. Of course, it could be argued that underprivileged kids aren’t really losing anything at all. Keeping school doors open helps them, too. And maybe their partial share of this particular allocation is all they deserve. Perhaps these millions were always meant by the province — with a nudge and a wink — to be available for other uses. Balancing Toronto school board books was never easy, but it’s harder than ever now with pressure from all-day kindergarten, declining student enrollment and chronic underfunding. To cope with these demands the system needs some built-in flexibility. And the provincial allocation helping poor kids could supply a handy pool of funds for that purpose. Officials at the education ministry don’t speak so bluntly. Instead they insist this money has been intentionally structured to give school boards “a certain level of independence.” After all, priorities vary across the province. “We want boards to be creative in the way they meet their local needs.” The essential point here is that school boards are allowed to be “creative” with money for underprivileged students and not with funding for other, presumably more essential, services. (With unintended irony, provincial bureaucrats describe program funds that can’t be diverted as “sweatered.” So even official jargon implies that poor kids are left out in the cold.) If Queen’s Park, in its wisdom, actually allocated $128 million to Toronto’s disadvantaged students it’s a travesty that poor kids were denied the full benefit of this funding. If they were, in fact, supposed to receive only a portion of that money then the government has misrepresented its priorities and broken faith with anti-poverty activists and taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill. Clarity is needed. If all funding for poor kids is truly a provincial priority, then “sweater” it so local boards can’t make off with the money. On the other hand, if some of this cash is really to bail out boards, then the government should say so and quit pretending otherwise. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2013/05/07/disadvantaged_kids_are_being_short... 5/7/2013 Mississauga Page 1 of 1 Six young women receive scholarships Jason Spencer May 7, 2013 MISSISSAUGA — The Mississauga branch of the Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) presented scholarships to six female students during the organization's annual dinner last night at the Mississaugua Golf and Country Club. The non-profit organization that helps young women pursue their studies awarded $2,000 scholarships to four high school students and two post-secondary students. Claudia Dessanti of St. Francis Xavier Secondary School, Polina Myrox from Gordon Graydon, Daniela Monachino from Philip Pocock Scholarship recipients. From left, Daniela Monachino, Allanah and Allanah Shah from John Fraser were the Shah and Maha Munawar were honoured as scholarship recipients high school recipients while Humber College by the Mississauga branch of the Canadian Federation of University student Josephine Gitonga and Maha Munawar Women. Staff photo by Jason Spencer from the University of Toronto Mississauga were also recognized. The winners were selected based on academic achievement along with involvement in extracurricular activities and volunteer work, said Linda Bowman, chair of the CFUW Mississauga's scholarship foundation. The CFUW has been operating across Canada since 1919 and has close to 9,000 members. The Mississauga branch of the organization is now in its 60th year, Shah was thankful to receive the funds, which helped her complete her first year in the midwifery program at McMaster University in Hamilton. "The scholarship has really helped with my tuition and made the attainment of my education a lot smoother and easier," said Shah, 19. "Without (the money) it would have been a huge struggle to pay that tuition. "It's just been an incredible honour to be recognized by such an amazing group of women." The event also included a keynote address by York University Professor Peter Love entitled: "Climate Change, Conservation: Its benefits and its challenges." This article is for personal use only courtesy of Mississauga.com - a division of Metroland Media Group Ltd. http://www.mississauga.com/print/1614111 5/7/2013 Education minister says she will always defend Ontario's Catholic schools Page 1 of 2 Home News Columns Faith YSN Education Arts Features Subscribe Donate CR Books Contact Ads Login Education minister says she will always defend Ontario's Catholic Search schools Recommend E-mail0 CO Sunday, 05 May 2013 08:11 TORONTO - If the Ontario Liberal government falls over its provincial budget, Education Minister Liz Sandals "will be back on the street knocking on doors and defending the Catholic education system again," she told an audience of about 200 Catholic school trustees. Sandals was the guest speaker at the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association 83rd annual general meeting and conference May 3. Sandals described her defence of the Catholic education system during the 2007 provincial election where the Green Party in her riding of Guelph was touting the merits of one education system. "Catholic boards have committed themselves wholeheartedly to improving student achievement and have been a key partner in the success of Ontario's education system," she said, adding that achieving the government's education priorities are dependent on the "most fragile things: a relationship, a partnership, a willingness for people to co-operate." "The spirit of collaboration is alive and well again at the ministry of education and in our government," Sandals, a former public school trustee and president of the Ontario Public School Boards' Association, told the audience. Find us on Facebook "I recognize that the board involvement in the last round of the provincial discussion table was not what you wanted," she said, referring to the unilaterally imposed memorandum of understanding The Catholic Register signed last year regarding the Putting Students First Act which will require Catholic boards to operate Like by more restrictive policies than the province's public boards. "That's why we are having a discussion about a new legislative model for collective bargaining. We need 1,472 people like The Catholic Register. a structure that includes the board as the employer, the government as the funder and unions representing the worker. We need to find a structure that is legally binding on all of us and I get that." She said the provincial government will be having a more formal consultation later in the spring to figure out what that new model will look like. Facebook social plugin Marino Gazzola, president of the OCSTA, was pleased to hear these sentiments. Stay Connected "I think her commitment moving forward that we will be involved speaks volumes," he said. "It lets us FACEBOOK TWITTER E- know that things are changing and that things are going to be different. We appreciate that." NEWSLETTER RSS For Phillip Squire, chair of the London District Catholic School Board, he was seeking assurance from the minister that "respect for trustees will include the recognition of the role of trustees as elected officials and the appropriate and proper employer of teachers and our support staff." Sandals responded by affirming the need for a legislative model where it is clear what everybody's role is. She also spoke about the groups for whom the government knows they need to do more to address their needs, including aboriginal students and crown wards. "We're now working with every single school board in the province on self-identification of First Nations and Métis students because if you can't figure out who the First Nations and Métis students are, we can't figure out how they're doing," she said, adding that the government will soon be revealing baseline data on First Nations and Métis achievement in schools.