Since 2002 CPE has coordinated focused campaigns to bring about full-funding of public education in Ontario. The specific struggles of the province’s 72 school boards differ from region to region. But common to these challenges is a fundamentally flawed provincial Government formula for allocating funds for the varied aspects of the delivery of sound education in the francophone and English-speaking Catholic and “public” boards.
CPE is part of a community based, parent-driven advocacy movement that is focused on keeping Ontario’s schools publicly funded. By advocating for the importance of publicly funded education in communities across Ontario, and lobbying the government to ensure that schools remain publicly owned and neighbourhood based we can best meet the needs of both school-age and adult students.
Toronto’s school pools serve not only as locations where recreation and life skills programs are offered, but also as important community hubs.
Until fairly recently the Cityof Toronto paid for almost the entire cost of operating the 33 swimming pools it uses to host City recreation programmes at the cost of $5.4 million per year. Within 4 years, the City will be paying for the entire operating costs for the pools in these schools, increasing the payment to $6.4 million. For these 33 schools, the City-Toronto District School Board (TDSB) agreement provides that for 2008, the TDSB will cover $1 million of operating costs, decreasing to zero within 4 years. The agreement also provides that the TDSB is responsible for the capital costs associated with the upkeep of those facilities.
In October of 2001 Toronto Parents Network, the Toronto Federation of Chinese Parents and the Parent Community Network, CUPE education workers and teachers federations adopted the name of Campaign for Public Education in a united fight against the Harris / Eves education funding cutbacks. The struggle for full funding of public education in Toronto continues to this day.
Commissioned by the Campaign for Public Education, a comprehensive study of Ontario’s school repairs and maintenance backlog has been undertaken by economist Hugh Mackenzie. Mackenzie’s report, which will be posted on this site November 14th, will detail how the next Ontario government can eliminate the school repairs and maintenance problem across the province.
