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GOVERNMENT UNDER FUNDING
PEEL Public School Board has been treated like a
second class citizen, with fewer
programs being applied and lower levels of funding.
When I became a Trustee back in 2003, a Peel student received
$459 less than the Provincial average and that gap has grown every
year, standing now at an amazing $838 per student. This equates to $117
Million Dollars.
Can you imagine what $117 Million in funding could provide?
Consider what other Boards do with the additional funding they
receive! Here is what it could mean to our schools:
- Lunch Room Supervisors
- More Computer for our Schools
- More textbooks
- More funding for our classrooms, where are kids
spend most ofl the time
- Better maintenance plan for our aging schools
especially in Wards 2 and 8
- More Assessment Staff so we can reduce the waiting
list
- More Teaching Assistants
- More ESL and ELL support for our immigrant
population, which is the largest in Ontario
- New Schools are much bigger, almost 2 times bigger
than the rest of the province
Even more concerning, if you were to compare ourselves to
Toronto, they receive over $1,110 more per student than Peel! How
and why does our neighbor deserve more than our children? This is
neither equitable and nor fair.
Meeting with MPP's and
Education Ministers
Although, the Peel Board has been meeting with our local MPP's
and the various
Education Ministers over the years, we have not seen any change
to close the gap. Each and every single year, the gap grows bigger
and bigger, with Peel being the 3rd lowest funded board in all the
Province.
The Honorable Harinder Takhar, who was the Chief Financial
Officer of Peel School Board before becoming our Ward 8 MPP, knows
very well the issues we faced. Yet his latest September 2010 Newletter states Peel Public School Board gets $ 9,657 per Student,
while our co-terminus board Peel Cathlolic Board gets $ 10,144, $ 487 more!!!!
Takhar Report -
Page 1
Takhar Report - Page 3
What we have done
Our Board, over the years, has been working persistently to highlight this severe
problem - meeting with our MPP's, Education Ministers and even our
Premier.
Given the widening gap over the last 7 years, last fall, we started bringing our message to the various
School Councils in Peel. The support has been amazing. They have
spearheaded a grassroots action plan, sending letters to our MPP's and
inviting them to information sessions to explain to our parents why
we should receive less funding than other neighboring boards. Unfortunately, the
government does not believe there is a problem and has tried to
debate the numbers or say Peel cannot be compared to any other
board.
Mobilizing our schools councils has certainly caught the
attention of our government and the Board is examining taking it to
the next level to get our message out to the community and the
province.
To get more details on please visit the following link that
documents our actions to date:
PEELS ACTION TO DATE
Devil is in the Details
So where and how can this discrepancy happen. Why would the
government be so offside on the funding of Peel. Well examined some of the
underlying assumptions
that have lead us to this issues:
- Census Data - They have used 1992 and 1996 Census data
to distribute money. This favors declining boards like
Toronto and disproportionately hurts PEEL the fastest
growing board in the Province. Our board has doubled over those years,
with the
huge influx of immigrants. They finally agreed to use the
latest census data but oh wait, lets phase that in over 4
years so we lose out on 15 million over that period of time.
- High Needs Funding - In our Special Education, each
board gets a "High needs" funding. This should be the same
across the province, since the percentage of high needs
children in each system, should be relatively the same.
However, Peel gets only $300 per student (lowest of all Boards)
compared with the provincial average of $600 per student
- Early Years Funding - Peel the 2nd largest board
according to the outdated census data, has not grown over the last
10 years and as a result is only funded as such. Hard to
imagine! Each and every board provides their enrollment data 3
times a year, so they should know exactly how many children we
have versus the other boards.
- Declining Enrollment - All but 3 boards are declining in
enrollment. Based on projection, Peel could be larger than Toronto
in 10 years if the rates of decline continue. Yet the
government has been helping the declining boards except Peel with extra
funding. Would you believe PEEL is declining? The
facts are that Peel
has certainly been increasing, no doubt about it; however,
if you look at the school population below the 401, 403 or QEW, you will would find we have a huge declining
population. Infact, we have already closed 2 schools in
Streetsville and Port Credit, yet the government will not
recognize that our needs are the same.
- Special Funding - From our perspective, the
government seems to allocated funding to those boards that
attract the
most media attention instead of true needs and with equity
throughout the province. When you consider the cost, 86% of
the Budget is Salaries, it is hard to imagine Peel could
receive an extra 10% ($117 Million).
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