We have noted in the past few weeks that the Government of Ontario is slated this month to distribute the second – final – tranche of federally-granted Covid-19 relief funds to the schools of the province. Indeed, the government may have already begun the process.
Through the Safe Return to Class Fund, the federal government allocated $763 million for all Ontario children between the ages of 4-18. Yet, none of the 125,000 students attending independent schools in the province – among whom are our children at Jewish day schools – has received any benefit from those funds. One of five schools in Ontario is an independent school. Yet, none of these schools has received any of the funds that the federal government intended for schools to abate the cost of acquiring personal protective equipment, or for extra safety cleaning or for extra health measures training.
How is this fair? Or justified? It is not.
The Ontario Federation of Independent Schools is working with the recently created Supporting Students Campaign (SSC) to try to persuade the government to act fairly and justly by allocating Covid-19 relief funds for the safety of students at independent schools too. Thus, before it is too late and all the federal funds will have bee disbursed, the SSC is holding two 30-minute webinars to discuss what measures, if any, can still be taken to influence the province to do the right thing.
The webinars are Tuesday, January 26 at 2:00 pm and Thursday, January 28 at 10:00 am.
To register for the Tuesday Webinar go to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqd-6gpzwiHNUgxC-M8VX5sooYiKoRuBrK
To register for the Thursday Webinar go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvfuirqDssGNz3WmbBscU3PU3HH9GR6CXv
For information about the Supporting Students Campaign , please go to their website: https://www.supportingstudents.ca.
As we have also noted in the past few weeks, the virus does not differentiate between children in public or independent schools. Nor should the government of Ontario.
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Be safe. Be well. Shabbat shalom.
GAJE, January 22, 2021
