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We have an update on the Campaign Against Education Cuts from the Toronto Schools Caregiver Coalition: Hello everyone, Last Tuesday, March 5th, 2024, the Toronto Schools Caregiver Coalition had an organizing meeting with parents, caregivers, and guardians. Trustee de Dovitiis (Ward 4), Saman from Progress Toronto, and Jennifer Huang from Labour Council, Toronto and York Region also attended the meeting. We are officially in the TDSB budgeting season. If you agree that our schools need more funding, please take action. We need all hands to get what our children deserve. Keep in mind that per pupil funding is down by $1,200 since 2018. For a school of 300 students that's $360,000. Preliminary school staffing allocations will be released on March 18th. In the meantime, TDSB staff is projecting a $200,000,000 deficit. Cuts to VP positions and SK/JK (based on declining enrollment) have already been proposed and accepted by the Board. Adding another $200,000,000 on top of that means that dramatic cuts will be put on the table at the budget committee meeting on March 19th. The full Board votes on the budget on April 2nd. The coalition's proposal is as follows:
Don't be scared of a provincial takeover. This course of action does not risk provincial takeover, nor does it necessarily advocate for risking provincial takeover in the future (that will warrant another debate down the road). The Trustees' obligation to the province is to pass a balanced budget by June 30th. The Trustees are free to amend in June any budget that passes in April by regular vote. What we have in this brief moment, just this month, is the opportunity to empower our Trustees to make a statement on April 2nd—this could be a potentially game-changing statement. The reality, which we all have experienced, is that there is not enough funding for education from the province. The reductions that have already been imposed over the last 6 years have had huge effects. So many of our kids are academically behind, and our schools lack staff and resources to help them catch up. Our special ed kids are being deprived of their right to education, and the same is true for ESL kids who get abandoned in a corner with an iPad running Google Translate. There are not enough caretakers to keep our schools clean and safe. There are not enough lunchroom supervisors, social workers, or supply teachers. Children and youth are experiencing poor mental health, bullying, and racism. The lack of books and educational materials, the sad state of our libraries, dilapidated buildings and classrooms are all part of the poor studying conditions that over the years have become normalized. So many students are being improperly served, and still the cuts keep coming. To keep their jobs, the Trustees must accommodate the funding calculation that the district receives from the province. That means that they half-heartedly point blame at the province, but otherwise have to pretend that everything is fine. Many of the Trustees have grown accustomed to looking us in the eye and pretending that it's possible to make $200,000,000 in cuts and still deliver the same quality of education. We all know it's not possible. If we, the public, are going to have any hope in making a successful demand of the province for more funding, we need our Trustees, the education advocates we elected, to act on behalf of our kids ‘well-being. We need them to publicly make a statement that the funding from the province is not enough. This budget could be that statement. If we can get the Trustees to pass an "unbalanced budget" on April 2nd, then we can turn to our Members of Provincial Parliament with more than our opinions and our lived experiences. We would have a public document that demonstrates in black in white precisely how much is needed. It would give us a concrete number that we can demand. It would give us just the tiniest bit of wiggle room that could break the double bind that we find ourselves in, between the Trustees and the provincial government, that effectively leaves no clear decision-making party to hold to account. Here is our action timeline (summarized in this shareable link: https://bit.ly/ON-budget-action and the attached flyer) Now through end of March Break
On March 18th
March 21st @ 7PM - "How to Make a Delegation"
March 26th @ 4:30PM - Public Delegation Meeting - TDSB Finance & Budget Committee
April 2nd
April, May, & June
Thank you! The Toronto School Caregiver Coalition [email protected] 
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