Earlier this month The CJN published an article that tracked “the cost of being Jewish in Canada”. It provided the average cost of six different markers of Jewish life – challah, synagogue, day school, real estate, summer camp and burial – in the major Jewish centres of the country.
The article was informative and smartly presented. The reporter, Michael Fraiman, meaningfully presented a wealth of information in a format that was easy to read with helpful explanatory commentary.
Apart from isolated pieces of information, such as the cost of a home in the Jewish neighbourhood in Halifax, we suspect most readers – especially in the GTA – could not have been very surprised by the figures in the article. They saw in print an itemization of the burdens on their families’ backs.
The large, imposing elephant in the dense information packed into the article was the telling statement by its author, “Ontario is the sole province to not subsidize private schools,” Thus, to our great chagrin, the average cost of day school in the GTA, listed as $17,000, is significantly higher than in any other city in the country where day schools exist.
How is this discrimination still possible in the year 2018?
The government of Ontario has shown itself to move quickly on matters that offend its policy conscience. If it were to know the full, background, details and dire implications of this ongoing educational funding unfairness, it stands to reason that it would act in this policy realm as well to end the discrimination that has so unjustifiably marred educational funding in our province.
We urge GAJE members to inform their MPPs of this ongoing injustice and to seek their aid in bringing it to an end.
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Shabbat Shalom.
GAJE
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 