02) LIBERAL GOVERNMENT ATTACKS TDSB, ORDERS SCHOOL CLOSURES

PV Ontario Bureau

            Forty-two deputants and many more parents, students, teachers and supporters of public education gave the Toronto and District School Board a strong message on Jan. 26 not to comply with 13 directives that would see up to 25% of the city's public schools close, and profoundly alter the role of locally elected Trustees. Minister of Education Liz Sandals issued her directives on Jan. 15, with an implementation deadline of Feb. 13, leaving the newly elected Board reeling and the public still largely in the dark. 

            Sandals commanded the TDSB to close 133 schools which the Ministry claims are under-utilized and must be sold off, to cover $3 billion in capital costs to repair hundreds of schools in various states of disrepair after 25 years of provincial under-funding. The closures add up to almost a quarter of the 588 schools in the system.

            The Directives also command the Board to immediately close Trustee offices, lay-off part-time Trustee assistants, and ban Trustees from all involvement in the selection of principals and superintendents, as well as any involvement in the schools they are responsible for, or in the administration of schools system-wide. Sandals states that the Ministry is proposing to dismantle the Board, but has not yet decided how or what to replace it with.

            The Board's initial January 19 meeting voted to comply with the Directives after the TDSB's lawyer advised that the government had amended a Regulation to give themselves the power to override the Education Act. The message was that the Board had no legal choice, but to comply. 

            With 11 of the 22 Trustees newly elected and in office only 46 days, the politics of fear and intimidation took hold. Almost the entire Jan. 19 meeting was spent trying to figure out how to accomplish compliance by the deadline, just 25 days away.  Only one Trustee, Howard Kaplan, voted against compliance, urging the Board to consult with parents and educators and to test public opinion before making any decisions.

            Kaplan was successful in getting the Board to hold the Jan. 26 public meeting, at which 41 of the 42 deputations came armed with facts and figures that exposed the folly of the Directives. The sale of TDSB properties to date showed an average of $6 million generated on each sale, while the cost of building a new school is $15 million. According to TDSB’s own figures, it would never be able to buy back these properties, many of which are prime downtown real estate.

            The calculations of under-utilization used by the province also exclude space used by childcare centres, as well as space used for services to youth and new Canadians, such as English as a Second Language, and other vital programs that the community has fought for decades to hold in Toronto schools. Schools declared "under-utilized" are actually being fully utilized, serving as desirable community hubs that are lauded in the media and promised by politicians running for office.

            Several referred to the Mike Harris Tories, who in 1995 declared war on public education. Their aim was to “create a crisis” that would open the door to a wholesale change in education funding, governance, labour relations, and curriculum. The results included increasing the drop out rate with racist "zero tolerance" policies, an attack on liberal arts education, and elimination of grade 13.

            Several spoke about boondoggles over the gas plants, ehealth, ORNGE, Bill 115, and other scandals, pointing out the Liberals have no moral authority to attack the TDSB. Toronto Trustees represent constituencies that are twice as big as provincial ridings - which have six times the staff and budgets, and full-time elected representatives.

            Toronto District Labour Council President John Cartwright called on the Board to reject the Directives, as did representatives of OSSTF, CUPE and the ETT, the main unions at the TDSB. Teachers spoke about the losses their students would suffer, and parents from across the City expressed their distress at the consequences for their schools and neighbourhoods. Domenic Bellissimo told Trustees they were the voice of parents and communities who were counting on them.

            Former Trustees Elizabeth Hill and Liz Rowley pointed out that when previous provincial governments tried similar things, the Board and Trustees had refused to comply, showing courage and integrity, with the support of their communities. Hill thanked Howard Kaplan for voting against compliance, and urged the Board to do likewise.

            Liz Rowley spoke about the provincial budget and the Liberal plan to cut $500 million from education this year and to freeze public sector wages. This will create turmoil in the schools, and the public will blame you, she told the trustees, saying “Don=t do it!”

            With the public still discovering what the Directives will mean for their children and grand-children, the Board has agreed to organize meetings in Scarborough and at the old York Board of Education building in the west end. This is the opportunity for the public to give a clear direction to the Board, not to comply with the latest attack on public education.

(The above article is from the February 1-14, 2015 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)