The situation was similar in 2002, when, after years of funding cuts, the TDSB was facing an $89 million operating shortfall. Kathleen Wynne, then a TDSB trustee, led the fight in refusing to make the cuts to balance the budget. The province took control of the board and appointed Supervisor Paul Christie to run it in place of the elected trustees. Over the year and a half that he was in power, Christie was unable to slash enough to balance the budget.
At the time, pressure from parents, students and trustees led the province to appoint Mordechai Rozanski to investigate education funding in Ontario. Rozanski concluded that the system was underfunded by $2 billion.
Fast forward 10 years and history is repeating itself. The TDSB faced a $55 million shortfall in 2011, $110 million in 2012 and another $55 million this year. Over the past three years, the board of trustees has cut almost 1,500 staff positions (about four per cent of our staff). Less than one half of these cuts can be explained as having some relation to declining enrolment. The rest are due to additional funding cuts by the provincial government. The board is already projecting an additional $30 million shortfall next year.
Ten years ago, when trustees refused to balance the budget, the provincial supervisor was sent in to make the cuts in their place. This year, provincial advisors are at the board recommending that, in order to balance the budget, trustees need to cut vice principals, school librarians, itinerant music instructors, school budgets (textbooks, computers, sports teams) and information technology.
On the capital side of the budget – used for major repairs, additions and new schools – funding is now so tight that the board is considering severing and selling playgrounds where children play every day.
Ten years ago, then-premier Ernie Eves argued that “the government has not cut funding to education in this province. As a matter of fact, we have added considerably to funding in this province.” In a similar vein, the provincial government today argues that, at the TDSB, funding is up by 33 per cent over the past eight years, and enrolment is down by 12.5 per cent.
So how is it that funding is up and enrolment is down, but the board is facing shortfalls each year? The answer is in the difference between gross and net funding. If the province gives a school board an additional $100, but tells it to spend $120 on full-day kindergarten, then gross funding may be up, but the net funding is down and the board is facing shortfalls.
The economist Hugh Mackenzie calculates that between 1998 and 2009, when you tally the additional costs to schools of inflation and provincial actions such as the class cap, provincially negotiated pay increases, and literacy and numeracy initiatives, net funding is down across the province by $450 per student per year. The introduction of full-day kindergarten has added to the net funding shortfalls at the TDSB.
I recognize that the board faces its own internal challenges particularly in its facilities department. The board has taken action. Two years ago, we brought in a new director of facilities and gave him a clear mandate to clean up the department. Since then, he has changed the computerized work order system to flag jobs that come in over budget, put GPS on trucks to trace the exact location of workers, and investigated and fired 40 staff members who were abusing the system. These efficiency changes, however, will not address the ongoing shortfalls at the TDSB.
I first got involved in education issues as a member of the Toronto Parent Network. By the time I joined a decade ago, Kathleen Wynne, who had started the organization, had moved on to become a TDSB trustee. At the Toronto Parent Network, I was organizing press conferences and writing a newsletter to raise awareness of the cuts that were taking place in our children’s schools. Kathleen Wynne spoke at some of those press conferences.
So, my question is: If she were still a trustee, what would Kathleen Wynne do?
In 2002, Wynne said school boards “are the only level of government whose job is to look after the needs of children.”
That is still true. I believe that voting for the cuts this year is not in the best interest of the students trustees were elected to serve.
I am, however, hopeful for a solution. Ten years ago, Premier Wynne was asking the province to review and fix the education funding formula. We now need her to do what she was demanding a decade ago – review and fix education funding in Ontario.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Chris Glover
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