There\u2019s something odd going on in Toronto\u2019s public-school system, and my guess is that similar scenarios are playing out in other cities across Ontario.
With overall student enrolment falling, education officials have embarked on a provincewide review, with the goal of closing the many half-empty schools. The reason, officials say, is the dropping fertility rate.
But something doesn\u2019t add up here. While dozens of schools sit half-empty in Toronto, dozens more are being mobbed by parents who live outside the boundaries of a favoured school\u2019s district, eager \u2014 often desperate \u2014 to enrol their children there. This is true of many schools located in the narrow strip on either side of Yonge Street, the city\u2019s central spine, from Bloor Street to Sheppard Avenue. That sector also happens to include most of the city\u2019s most affluent neighbourhoods. While these much sought after schools are \u201cpublic,\u201d they boast an array of programming and updated facilities that are markedly superior to many schools in middle- and lower-income neighbourhoods.
So intense has the \u201cout of district\u201d pressure become that some of these schools are now completely shutting off enrolment to the pesky outsiders, even when they are not full. Undaunted, the geographically disadvantaged are resorting to all sorts of tricks: a big one is lying about their home address. Or parents with limited interest in say, extended French, may request this program in order to boost their priority in the lineup.
More and more parents, frustrated by their lack of options and knowing their child will be grown before officials solve the problem (if they ever do), are heading for the large private-school system \u2014 if they can afford it. Many others are moving to the sprawling, adjacent suburbs of Peel, York and Durham, drawn by their new, and often superior, schools.
As a result, the shunned schools enter a downward spiral. With fewer students and thus lower budgets \u2014 due to an antiquated funding formula based on dollars per head \u2014 their programming shrinks, their facilities decay and their best staff, demoralized by the challenges they face, head elsewhere.
Perhaps some schools should be closed. But how many others could be supported, at least, in the short term, with judicious infusions of cash? How much can it cost to start a design and technology program? (One unused room, one teacher, a dozen computers.) How can outstanding principals be recruited to work at needy schools? What about fast-tracking the upgrading of shamefully degraded playing fields? One large high school outside the Golden Corridor has three swimming pools; none are functional.
In the long term, there needs to be a new model for funding, so that all kids whose families can\u2019t afford Toronto\u2019s uber-expensive neighbourhoods can receive a good education in nurturing environments. Failing to do so will only accelerate the corrosive process that leads to the doughnut-style decline of inner cities so common south of the border.
High-quality education for all is also a fundamental business issue, as regular school promoters such as Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates well know. Let\u2019s give every kid an equal chance at later success, instead of leaving it to strapped parents to hunt for loopholes in a bureaucratic numbers game that seems indifferent to their needs and the unfairness of the existing scenario.
Instead of punishing families that are already helping to keep the city vital by raising their children here, the Toronto District School Board should do two things: maintain flexible policies about individual school choices during this transition period; and take immediate steps to provide meaningful support for schools that have been neglected for too long.\tIE<\/b>
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