Key School Board Issues
Toronto is one of the greatest cities in the world, but we are at a crossroads. Our city is becoming increasingly unaffordable and income inequality is growing faster than ever before. People, communities, and an entire generation are being squeezed out. It doesn’t have to be this way.
The decisions made at the school board can either take our city along a more progressive path or down a deepening divide. We need our school board to tackle the real, pressing issues facing our schools and act as our line of defence to protect our students and help make sure our schools create the opportunities that will make Toronto a city for all.
In no particular order, what follows are over 20 of some of the most pressing issues and possible solutions facing the TDSB in the new term.
The TDSB must advocate to reform the provincial education funding formula, so that it is more needs-based and reflects the supports that students need to be successful learners.
In 1997, Ontario introduced a provincial education funding formula. The funding formula has remained largely unchanged, and still does not provide enough funding to address the fundamental needs of students and schools including: funding for libraries, guidance, music, art and physical education and funding for school operations and maintenance.
The TDSB needs to oppose cuts to special education supports and advocate for greater supports and resources for special education.
It is important for every student to get the support they need to thrive, particularly students who have special education needs. The province directs funding to school boards for special education resources, but it falls short of the immense student need, so the TDSB has consistently spent more from their budget than is allocated.
The TDSB must advocate for equal access to EDCs to ensure developers pay their fair share to help fund schools.
Toronto is experiencing rapid population growth and that trend is set to continue. This means that there will be more pressure on city infrastructure, including schools. Toronto District School Board schools urgently need $4 billion in repairs and the pandemic has exposed how school disrepair, over-crowded classrooms, and poor ventilation systems are not only compromising students’ learning environments, but are public health hazards as well. This disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. While Toronto’s Catholic and French-language school boards can access funds through Education Development Charges (EDCs) — fees collected from developers to help pay for the cost of education infrastructure required due to growth — the Ontario government does not allow the TDSB to access these charges. Progress Toronto released a report and petition on this with allies at Fix Our Schools and the Broadbent Institute.
The TDSB should support community access to school spaces and to house community services in schools, such as child care centres and public recreational facilities.
From child care centres, to recreational and literacy programs, schools in the TDSB have long been identified as community hubs. However, the Ministry of Education only provides funding to operate schools for educational purposes. School buildings provide important opportunities for other uses to build thriving, vibrant communities.
The TDSB must strengthen its commitment to equity and inclusion.
In 2016, the TDSB launched the Integrated Equity Framework Action Plan. There must be continued efforts around equity and inclusion at the TDSB to improve student achievement, close opportunity gaps, and support student well-being.
The TDSB should end EQAO testing in TDSB schools.
Many have advocated for the elimination of EQAO testing, arguing it is costly and puts stress on students as they fear failure and poor performance. The case is made that externally provided standardized testing homogenizes the needs of students and ignores socioeconomic status and access to to support systems. That it creates harm through labeling, creating self-doubt, and impacting motivation in students who have not been set up with the same opportunities as other students, contributing to drop out rates and impacting future success. It places the burden on the individual student rather than the system. While some make the case that external standardized testing is there to help close achievement gaps, the evidence is that it actually contributes to persistent systemic inequities and a place-based approach would be better than the one-size-fits-all approach. Furthermore, critics fear the EQAO has become politicized under the current Conservative government. Other school boards across Ontario, such as the Peel District School Board have voted to suspend EQAO testing.
The TDSB must not bring back SROs into our schools and instead must work to bring more caring adults in schools to create a safer school culture and environment.
The School Resource Officer (SRO) program was eliminated in TDSB schools. More caring adults (rather than police) that work to meet the needs of all students, such as guidance counsellors, youth support workers, and social workers, were a key recommendation of the Falconer Report on school community safety.
The TDSB must advocate for funding to fix our schools.
One of the top priorities facing public schools in Toronto is the need for adequate funding to repair schools. The TDSB’s Renewal Needs Backlog (RNB) list identifies over 20,000 repairs needed in hundreds of schools. The TDSB projects the repair backlog will hit almost $5 billion by 2025. Each year the TDSB submits a list of 10 priority capital projects and the province funds three of them. The TDSB has continued to put Scarborough schools high on the list but the province has failed to come through with funding. The TDSB must advocate for more provincial resources to fix the school repair backlog and for funding solutions to address this so that students across the city can learn in safe and comfortable conditions.
The TDSB must oppose the sale of schools.
In the past, the TDSB has explored shutting down and selling schools as a desperate move to raise funds to deal with school repairs. However, given the growth pressures we are facing in Toronto and the use of schools as community hubs, this is shortsighted and a response to a broken funding formula that the Province needs to fix.
The TDSB should not turn to private partnerships to solve inadequate public funding for our school facilities.
In the past, the TDSB has entered into public-private partnership for the operations of school facilities, as a way to deal with the inadequate funding schools receive from the provincial government. The result of these partnerships is private companies profiting from public land and and creating barriers to access and use for the local community. The TDSB should oppose such partnerships between the TDSB and private companies.
TDSB trustees must support active parent engagement across the TDSB.
Parent engagement is an important part of student achievement. Study after study has shown positive effects when parents play an active role in their children’s education. The TDSB should support, recognize, and encourage many forms of parent engagement in the TDSB, including regular meeting opportunities in each ward and meaningful community consultation.
TDSB trustees must support mental health and student well-being.
The TDSB has identified student mental health as a board priority, and has implemented strategies that work to promote positive mental health, such as the Mental Health Strategy. Through the pandemic student mental health was greatly impacted and now more than ever we need more mental health workers and child and youth workers supporting mental health in our schools. TDSB trustees should support allocating resources to initiatives like these that ensure that mental health supports and well-being are integrated into the experiences of students.
The TDSB should oppose mandatory online learning and hybrid learning at the TDSB and instead support in-person learning.
At Progress Toronto we fought back against Ford’s huge cuts to public education and his moves to take students out of the classroom with four mandatory online courses in high school. Advocates had a small win, but Ford and Lecce are still requiring high school students to take two mandatory online courses. The pandemic has shown us that mandatory online courses are not about a better educational experience, they perpetuate inequities and are a money saving measure by Ford that undermines our students’ learning. Likewise, some school boards adopted ‘hybrid-learning’ during the pandemic, which has been difficult for education workers and students.
TDSB trustees must support our educators.
School trustees have an important oversight role to play in collective bargaining negotiations. The TDSB should uphold the principles of collective bargaining of Toronto educators to ensure the process is fair and balanced and support calls for fair wages for education workers.
The TDSB should support the equitable access and distribution of specialized programs, courses, and schools across Toronto.
The TDSB has long offered specialized high schools focussing on, for example, the arts, athletics, or technology. Over the years concerns have been raised and evidence has emerged that not all students have equal access to these schools with many facing barriers related to family income, identity, and where they live in the city. Studies showed that students in art-focused schools are predominantly white and come from higher income families - disproportionately extending privilege to already privileged students. That’s why the TDSB recently adopted a revised Student Interest Programs Policy to promote access for all students, not just some. The TDSB has also made a commitment to growing and supporting local school programs as well so that students don’t have to commute further or rely on specialty schools.
TDSB trustees must implement and advocate for greater supports, training, and engagement, alongside destreaming to help ensure its success.
Academic streaming is a widely criticized process, many pointing out that children are not being placed on a pathway that’s taking them to where they need to go. Studies have shown that students who are Black, from low-income backgrounds, or from historically marginalized communities are overly represented in the applied stream of classes. The TDSB is phasing in the end to academic streaming and we can already see positive results. However, the move to destream needs to be coupled with an investment in access to more supports, smaller class sizes and additional training for educators.
The TDSB must invest in a restorative approach to conflict resolution.
As part of the TDSB’s equity work there has been a recognition that existing policies, procedures, and practices around discipline are leading to a disproportionate number of racialized students, especially Black and Indigenous students facing suspensions and expulsions. And the TDSB has voted to expunge many suspension records for elementary students from Kindergarten to Grade 3. The TDSB must support the investment of resources into restorative practices and cooperative ways of conflict resolution.
The TDSB must support road safety initiatives.
A child is seriously injured or killed every 17 weeks on their way to or from school on Toronto’s roads. The city’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan works to address safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and school children. School Safety Zones are being rolled out across the city and include a variety of measures to slow drivers down and improve road safety around schools. TDSB trustees should vote to support road safety initiatives and the expansion of School Safety Zones to keep our students safe and support active transportation to school.
The TDSB should further support the work of the Urban Indigenous Education Centre at the TDSB.
The Urban Indigenous Education Centre at the TDSB helps to ensure the curriculum for all students reflects Indigenous experiences and histories and that First Nations, Métis and Inuit students have an enhanced educational experience. The work of the Urban Indigenous Education Centre at the TDSB should be supported to support Indigenous language education and ensure the curriculum appropriately reflects Indigenous experiences today and histories.
TDSB Trustees must ensure GSAs are protected and LGBTQ2SI+ and gender diverse students are supported.
Genders and Sexualities Alliances (GSAs) are student-run clubs that provide a safe and supportive environment for LGBTQ2SI+ students and allies. Trustees play an important role in protecting GSAs and ensuring that all schools are welcoming and safe for LGBTQ2SI+ students. Some school boards in Ontario have attempted to ban students from creating GSAs and there are conservative candidates running for public school boards across Ontario on a platform of hate and exclusion.
TDSB Trustees must work with other politicians and use their power as a Trustee to oppose cuts and attacks on public education.
Premier Doug Ford’s education agenda poses a serious threat to our children’s education, safety, and well-being. He is failing to invest billions of dollars in school repair and has quietly been cutting funding from education, while claiming to make greater investments. And he has been making moves to privatize education by moving towards charter schools and vouchers - rather than investing in equitable public education. Sending parents a small amount of money directly to possibly cover the costs of private tutoring instead of investing it in making our schools better will lead to a further decline in the quality, accessible, public education our students deserve. $90 dollars sent to each family has little impact for that family but represents hundreds of millions collectively taken out of public education. We need our Trustees to stand up for public education.
The TDSB must advocate to other levels of government for fare free public transit for youth under 18 (it’s free for kids under 12).
The serious impacts of climate change on people's health, our economy, and the City's infrastructure are already being felt. We need to act fast to protect future generations. As part of TransformTO, the City’s Net Zero Strategy sets out a pathway to reaching net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for Toronto by 2040, which includes getting more people onto public transit and recognizes the role free public transit plays. In 2021 the TDSB passed a motion advocating for free public transit for high school students. Climate change is a big reason to extend free transit to this age group and barrier free access to quality public education is another. TDSB students travel across the city to attend specialized programs within the school board and in 2020 funding for transit to these programs was cut. And since many young people do not carry identification, high school students have reported to TTCriders that they have experienced discrimination from fare enforcement based on race and age, as they have travelled to school. The TTC is free for kids under 12 in Toronto.