HomeMy WebLinkAboutOntario school boards intensify spending war to lure students, maintain funding - Globe & Mail - 02/13/2018 - Globe & Mail - 02/13/20182/14/2018 Ontario school boards intensify spending war to lure students, maintain funding - The Globe and Mail
Ontario school boards intensify spending war to lure
students, maintain funding
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From busing students who do not qualify for transportation services to beautifying
front lawns, Ontario school boards are spending millions of dollars as they compete
to lure families and maintain their provincial funding.
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2/14/2018 Ontario school boards intensify spending war to lure students, maintain funding - The Globe and Mail
children to their elementary schools regardless of faith.
For its part, the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) is busing more than
7,000 students who are deemed "non -qualifying," meaning they are not entitled to
transportation because they live less than 1.5 kilometres from the school, at a cost of
$1.1 -million, partly in fear of losing them to public schools closer to home, according
to a report prepared by board staff late last year. And, in the most recent academic
year, the Peel District School Board, west of Toronto, spent $1.3 -million to improve
curb appeal at some of its high schools after research showed it would attract and
retain students.
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Read more: In push for funding, Ontario's Catholic school boards enrolling
more non-Catholics
Globe editorial: Fix the grey area around Catholic school funding
The money went toward signs, parking areas, landscaping and playing fields that
were visible from the roadway.
Other districts are spending money on marketing and specialized sports programs to
attract families.
"I believe money being spent for advertising by school boards for the purpose of
recruiting students is an unnecessary and wasteful use of education dollars," said
John Hendry, a long-time trustee at the Waterloo Region District School Board. "The
government seems to turn a blind eye to the practice of advertising to simply lure
students from one system to another."
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2/14/2018 Ontario school boards intensify spending war to lure students, maintain funding - The Globe and Mail
every corner of the province and all draw from the same pool of students. Declining
birth rates have forced them to compete.
Premier Kathleen Wynne was not available on Tuesday for comment, a
spokeswoman said. At a recent town hall meeting in Thunder Bay, Ms. Wynne
criticized school boards' use of public funds to compete for students.
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"I think it is absolutely wrong that the Catholic system, the English system, the
French system, would be advertising to take students from the other systems," Ms.
Wynne said in response to a question on competition for students and ending public
funding for religious schools. "I think it's something that shouldn't happen."
Board staff at the TCDSB, where 7,030 "non -qualifying" children receive
transportation services, outlined student retention as a reason. "If the service were to
be discontinued," the report stated, "there is a potential risk of losing approximately
60 per cent of these students — due to student addresses being in closer geographic
proximity to [Toronto District School Board] schools versus TCDSB schools."
Jo -Ann Davis, a school trustee who is the TCDSB's representative on the consortium
that delivers school -bus service to the Catholic and public boards in Toronto, said
her board was not doing anything inappropriate.
"I think competition is good in business and I think it's good in education," she said.
"I think one of the great things about the Ontario school system is that we have
competition and all boards need to be making sure that they're providing an
excellent education to their students because they know that if they don't, there are
other options out there."
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2/14/2018 Ontario school boards intensify spending war to lure students, maintain funding - The Globe and Mail
a slippery slope.... It's just going to lead to increased costs down the road for
everybody."
The Globe's analysis found the province's English-language Catholic boards have
quietly been opening up elementary-school enrolment over the past several years
and had seen a gradual increase year over year of students who were non-Catholic
or of an unknown religious identity at their schools. In some boards, more than a
quarter of elementary-school students and their parents or guardians did not have a
baptismal certificate, according to figures obtained through Freedom of Information
requests.
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Laurie French, president of the Ontario Public School Boards' Association, said that
as boards open up their enrolment criteria, it "exaggerates the competitive
environment."
"The current competitive environment that we see is having a negative impact on
programming and supports that are available in our boards. That's clear," she said.
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2/14/2018 Ontario school boards intensify spending war to lure students, maintain funding - The Globe and Mail
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Globe editorial: Fix the grey area around Catholic school funding
in push for funding, Ontario's Catholic schoM boards euro ing more non ....Catholics
Ontario Catholic high schools shouldn't press students to study religion: settlement
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2/14/2018 Ontario school boards intensify spending war to lure students, maintain funding - The Globe and Mail
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