Elimination of International Languages Day Programs
TORONTO – At the very least, an irresponsible, retrograde, poorly-thought-out pedagogical decision; at its worst a sneering, condescending, narrow decision on the definition of inclusion in a school environment bordering on racism and religious bigotry. Oh, I forgot, the initiative comes from a Toronto school board (TCDSB) previously referred to as Catholic. Under the current Administration, over the last nine years, it has done everything it could to erode the rights of its Catholic ratepayers to the education they want for their children with their money, and as per denominational rights.
So let’s talk about the money and what it is supposed to buy. First of all, only Catholics are allowed to direct their property taxes to Catholic education. Without verification property taxes are defaulted to the public schools. Such Catholic designation also allows them to vote for their trustees who oversee their interests as Catholic parents. Please note, that means they must support the teachings of the Magisterium – not the interpretations of its encyclicals by trustees or the Government of the day. Further, If one is not Catholic, one can neither seek election as a Catholic trustee nor vote for one: “if you pay, you play”. Since the current Administration has been in office, no less than three of the twelve trustees failed to meet this elementary test – despite having to file an affidavit to prove their eligibility and swearing an oath of allegiance to the Magisterium every November.
Is this serious? Only if one thinks that the approval of an annual Budget (expenditure plan for the good of your children) in the amount of $ 1.207 Billion should be spent wisely. and honestly. Last year, 87, 342 children registered in the T [quasi]Catholic District School Board. Of these, 59,822 (68%) were in the elementary panel, grades 1-8. Each of them “earned” the quasi Catholic Board $14,479 in Core Education Funding for a total of $ 866,162,738 (59,822 X 14,479).
Since the Government has said “we need to get back to basics – get a better understanding of Reading, [w]Riting and [a]Rithmetic – and put more resources to student learning in the classroom”, it is fair to ask which studies support withdrawing funds from the language programs benefiting Italian, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Philippino, Spanish and Mandarin students, who currently represent the majority of Catholics.
Remember, according to statements attributed to the Administration, about 19,200 of those 59,822 students passed the hurdles they were required to jump in order to take the course their parents finance for 30 minutes per day four days of the week.
Online sources, trustees speaking on background, or their colleagues feeling “betrayed” by members of Senior Staff (Administration) all peg the amount of money to be spent or saved through this targeting exercise at $6.2 million dollars. Were it true, firing the 77 instructors (not members of the Teachers’ Union) associated with the programme would result in a 0.71% savings.
This is risible. No wonder people are calling to complain.
In the pic below: Brendan Browne, Director of the TCDSB (photo from his Twitter profile – @TCDSBdirector)
