Fundraising and fees in Toronto schools
September 12, 2011
A new report from Social Planning Toronto raises concerns that fees and fundraising are leading to "have" and "have-not" schools in the TDSB.
From the Toronto Star, Monday, September 12, 2011:
Ontario should ban school fundraising because of the “shocking” differences in amounts raised — but in the meantime Toronto’s public board should consider pooling such monies among schools to ensure fairness, says a report to be released Monday by Social Planning Toronto.
The report, in part using data obtained by the Star through freedom of information requests, says that the top 20 wealthiest public elementary schools in Toronto brought in almost $250,000 each over three years, and the neediest 20 schools less than $7,000 each.
The new report, Public System, Private Money: Fees, fundraising and equity in the Toronto District School Board, from Toronto Social Planning, includes data on fundraising and fees in TDSB schools. Among the findings:
- the wealthiest 20 secondary schools fundraised 920 times more money than the poorest 20 schools in the TDSB.
- neighbourhood maps clearly show that schools that raise high amounts through a combination of fundraising, fees and things such as vending machines, fundraising for outside charities and corporate donations, are more likely to be in high-income neighbourhoods.
Source
People For Education Viewpoint:
The maps in this report paint a stark picture, clearly showing the relatioinship between neighbourhoods’ average incomes and neighbourhood schools’ capacity to fundraise.
The report’s findings reflect the findings in our 2011 Annual Report on Ontario’s Publicly Funded Schools. Data from P4E Annual School Surveys showed that the amounts fundraised by individual schools across the province range from a low of $0 to a high of $275,000 per school. The wide range in fundraising — with the top 10% of fundraising schools raising the same amount as the bottom 78% put together — coupled with schools’ increased reliance on fees, raises grave concerns about students’ equitable access to a broadly based education.
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The dreaded fundraising debate
I hope that during the election all the parties talk about this. We need to hear lots of details about education plans in the upcoming election. What are the programs and resources that should be available in all schools? Are the arts important? If so, is it not time to provide direct funding for arts programs? What about sports and extra curricular activities? Shouldn't all kids have access to them? View the full discussion.