Andres Spokoiny, the president and CEO of Jewish Funders Network, is an insightful, creative thinker. He embraces broad ideas and looks thoughtfully to the horizons of Jewish life to anticipate coming storms and to sound the sheltering clarion.

In the recent edition of Sapir, the journal published by the Maimonides Fund that “explores the future of the American Jewish community,” Spokoiny proposed a large initiative, a “moonshot idea” in his words, to achieve universal basic Jewish literacy for as wide a swath as possible of North American Jews.

His proposal is radical given the unprecedented intra-and-inter-communal effort that would be required to make it happen. But it is quite on point as a response equal in measure to that of the approaching storm.

The intersection of Spokoiny’s suggestion with GAJE’s mission is obvious. Access to meaningful Jewish education for all who seek it, is the best way to ensure a thriving Jewish community into the future and in perpetuity.

Spokoiny makes his case with compelling logic. “For a culture to thrive, people need to truly know what that culture encompasses. To feel part of a historical continuum, people need to learn that history. To find comfort in rituals (regularly and at life’s key moments), people need to understand the ritual. To be guided by wisdom in ancient sources, people need to be able to navigate their structure and content beyond a handful of cherry-picked quotes. This requires sustained engagement with meaningful Jewish content.”

For discussion purposes, Spokoiny offers a framework of a “curriculum” of sorts. He acknowledges shortcomings, possible valid criticisms, and sundry other challenges. But he moves nevertheless, uncowed by difficulties, but rather energized by the importance and the scale of the proposal.

“A proper program of Jewish cultural literacy needs to cover the different areas that make up the fascinating kaleidoscope of religion, nationality, culture, and history that is Judaism. Scholars have argued extensively about what the pillars of Jewish content are, and many have debated what would make an educated Jew. But by and large, the fundamentals can be grouped into six buckets:

1. Rituals and practices
2. Texts and sources
3. History
4. Languages, art, and culture
5. Thought and philosophy
6. Zionism and Israel

Spokoiny proposes that “most adult Jews experience at least a hundred hours of Jewish studies, covering the basic building blocks of Jewish cultural literacy. This needs to be normative and transformative — a “Birthright Judaism” in its scale and some of its features. Just as Jews have a “birthright” to the Land of Israel, they also have a birthright to their culture and their multi-faceted heritage.”

The radical idealism of his proposal does not wash away Spokoiny’s accumulated experience or abiding sense of realism. “The biggest impediment to the success of this project, he writes, “will not be funding or organizational wherewithal, but motivation.”

Spokoiny is no dreamer. He is quite the pragmatist. He imagines the parameters of a path forward, while acknowledging the many stumbles that might happen along the way. But he understands the potential for the people of which he feels so fully, happily and proudly a member. “If this moonshot comes even close to fruition….it will provide a common foundation for people to have informed Jewish conversations. It will expose Jews to the richness of their culture, providing a valuable historical perspective to face the challenges of our time. It will empower them to use Jewish wisdom, sources, and ritual to find meaning. It will make them more likely to want to transmit that heritage to the next generation.”

Enabling Jews to transmit our heritage from one generation to the next is exactly GAJE’s purpose. May Spokoiny find a way – soon – to implement his moonshot idea.

Spokoiny’s article can be found at:

Universal Jewish Literacy

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Chag Shavuot samayach. Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

June 2, 2023

Three weeks ago, in his Dvar Torah for parshat Emor, Rabbi Jarrod Grover of Congregation Beth Tikvah spoke on the subject of rethinking public education. His presentation was substantive and timely and worthy of sharing with GAJE supporters and followers. It is especially appropriate to do so, on the eve of the holiday of Shavuot, the communal celebration of the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai.

The holiday begins this evening. It has always been associated with Jewish education for it is only through such education that we can fulfill the obligation – and our promise – to teach the laws, customs, traditions, ethics, folkways, and all their underlying values – to our children. And it is only by fulfilling our obligation – and promise – to educate our children that we can imbue them with aspects of the breadth and depth of those laws that were ordained at Mount Sinai and that have evolved in the subsequent 3500 years in order to anchor our mission to help perfect an imperfect world.

And so, we bring to readers’ attention to some of the key thoughts from Rabbi Grover’s Shavuot-appropriate, deeply relevant, message to his congregation three weeks ago.

•••

“I believe very strongly that Jewish day school education is the best tool I have at my disposal for instilling Jewish identity in my children, and ensuring Jewish continuity. I believe that it is my right as a Canadian parent to educate my children in my particular religious tradition. And I believe that it is unacceptable that in our province, Catholic education is fully funded to the exclusion of all other religious groups.

“But I also believe that Ontario, and Canada, needs a strong public education system with schools that educate students to contribute to the common good in various different ways. We should all want that. And we should all be concerned that so many parents feel that our system is not meeting their needs…..

“In our diverse and heterogeneous country, one-size-fits-all solutions for public education will become increasingly difficult to sustain, and increasing inappropriate for the needs of our children and their parents. ….

“[W]e in the Jewish community have a tremendous opportunity to partner with parents across the province in the rethinking of public education. We ought to support every effort to fund Jewish day schools, including the recent lawsuit being brought against the province. … But we ought also to set our sights higher – towards public funding for all schools – for all the diverse educational institutions that have been established so as to correspond to the diverse preferences of the people who live here. All schools – religious and secular, Catholic and independent, ought to be considered public schools that contribute to the public good, and to the development of a next generation of workers, neighbours, and voters with whom we will live and on whom we will depend to build a flourishing society. No parent should be forced to compromise their values and/or their finances in order to achieve a meaningful expression of their rights. This is a principle all of us can get behind.”

The Minister of Education ought to hear Rabbi Grover’s compelling message about Ontario’s educational system. Indeed, all Ontarians should. Its essential truth is one of fairness and justice. We agree with Rabbi Grover. “It is unacceptable in our province, that Catholic education is fully funded to the exclusion of all other religious groups.”

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Chag Shavuot samayach. Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

May 25, 2023

In November of 2022, Cardus – the public policy think tank – published a research paper entitled Naturally Diverse: The Landscape of Independent Schools in Ontario. The study provides current, detailed information on Ontario’s independent schools. GAJE brought this important report to the attention of our readers and supporters at the time it was published nearly 8 months ago and again earlier this year. It is a seminal work.

The authors of the study – David Hunt, Joanna Dejong Vanhof and Jenisa Los – perform an invaluable service. Their combined work deserves to be widely read. It provides factually unassailable data on the nature of Ontario’s independent schools and of their respective populations.

As we wrote, the information provided by Cardus’ researchers enables government officials to make public policy based upon fact, not upon myth. The study conclusively proves that independent schools are a multi-purpose, multi-faceted, multi-pedagogical tapestry of diverse families and students. They are definitely NOT a bastion of the elite. Only 61 of the 1,445 independent schools, namely 4.2% of the schools, can be classified as “top tier”.These 61 schools account for 16% of all students attending independent schools. The government can cast into the trash bin of debunked myths, the harmful, false notion that extending any funds to independent schools would provide taxpayer funds to the well-heeled families of the province’s elite schools.

Naturally Diverse can be found at:

https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/reports/naturally-diverse-the-landscape-of-independent-schools-in-ontario/

Last month, Kathryn Boothby, award-winning journalist and business writer, relied upon the study for an article for the National Post to chronicle the consistent growth of the independent school sector in Ontario. In the article entitled Explosive Growth in Schools, Boothby notes that there are some 1,445 independent schools in Ontario, an increase of over 50 per cent since 2013-14. She adds that “enrollment rose by almost 30,000 students, more than any other province in the country. Most recent numbers (2019-20) indicate independent schools in Ontario now educate over 154,000 students.”

Boothby describes the increase in the number of independent schools and in student enrollment from a number of points of view. Her article is quite instructive. However, we wish to highlight three key points from her article.

First: She notes that the sector is incredibly unique and diverse, with over 40 per cent having a specialization. Quoting David Hunt, she adds that “each school serves unique and specific student needs that district schools either don’t or can’t meet. More growth in the sector, and options to specialize, allows parents to self-select the type of school they believe is most beneficial for their child.”

Second: Boothby ties the information in Naturally Diverse to other recent Cardus from its complementary report, A Good Fit, which looked at the type of school a child attended versus how it affected outcomes. Again, quoting Hunt, “In an environment where students feel comfortable and familiar, there is a significant impact on student success. That is how important ‘fit’ is to academic outcomes. Civic engagement and career advancement also correlate with academic achievement. For a child to succeed, ‘fit’ matters,” Hunt said. There are hundreds of private schools that may offer a better fit for a child both socially and academically than the current public schools, Boothby adds.

Finally, quoting David Hunt, education director at Cardus and co-author of the report, she emphasizes that the increase in schools and student numbers “comes despite zero taxpayer funding for independent schools in Ontario, compared to Quebec and every province in the west.”

And so, we ask the provincial government – with as much pain and sorrow in our hearts as frustration and anger – why? Why, in the year 2023, should Ontario – the richest province in Canada – be the outlier? Why, in the year 2023, should Ontario be so indifferent to helping the more than 150,000 students attending independent schools achieve their best educational outcomes? Why, in the year 2023, should Ontario care nothing for fairness in educational funding?

The Boothby article is available at:

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/case-free-jewish-day-school

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

May 19, 2023

Last week, we drew readers’ attention to an essay entitled The Case for Free Jewish Day School, published in early April in Tablet magazine. Its author, Mark Oppenheimer, a senior editor at Tablet and the host of the podcast, Unorthodox, wrote from the heart and aimed to touch the hearts of his readers.

In last week’s update, we featured some of Oppenheimer’s thoughts about the importance of day school education. In this update we share some of his ideas on why (and how) day school education should be free to those who seek it for their children.

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The case for making day school education free or almost free

“According to the latest survey of the American Jewish community, a large-scale study conducted by Keren Keshet, most American Jews hope that their children and grandchildren engage with the Jewish community. In a survey that suggests that American Jews don’t agree on much, 65% did agree on this. And there are few more impactful ways of guaranteeing that your child will be deeply connected to Judaism than sending them to a Jewish school…

“Another thing many respondents (almost a sixth) agreed upon: that the cost of being Jewish is a barrier to greater engagement. I have thus begun to wonder, given the high interest in sending your children to Jewish day schools and the high cost of doing so, shouldn’t they be free? Put another way, aren’t there enough wealthy and charitable Jewish institutions that poor, middle-class, and even financially stressed upper-middle-class Jews should be able to send their children to Jewish schools without worrying about the tuition?

“…It’s worth noting that schools have made great leaps toward affordability in the last decade. Without question, the about 300,000 students enrolled in about 900 non-Haredi schools… are receiving more financial aid now than ever before. And the money is getting better, faster. After the recession of 2008, when day-school enrollments began to decline, many Jewish communities embarked on herculean efforts to make the schools more accessible…

“But for all these efforts, it’s still the rare Jewish philanthropist who makes Jewish schools—or Jewish summer camps, which are similarly transformative—a top priority…. Donors prefer to focus on Israel trips, arts and culture, or well-meaning efforts to combat antisemitism. And there’s nothing wrong with any of that. But I can say that I have forgotten more about my Birthright trip than I ever remembered (and I think my wife, brother, and sister, all Birthright alumni, would say the same). And without Jewishly educated adults, there is no audience for Jewish film festivals….”

Oppenheimer noted some of the key objections to his suggestion for free or mostly free day school tuition. One of the most frequent was that “we don’t value what we don’t pay for.” But Oppenheimer doubted the accuracy of this quibble. Pointing for example to the relatively low tuition for a general arts program at the University of Toronto, he notes that “many of us value public education precisely because it’s a commonly funded good.”

Compelled by the need note the full financial implication of his proposal, he acknowledged “It’s a hefty ask. But I’m a writer and a dreamer, not an accountant or fundraiser. I don’t have to live in the realm of the possible. And besides, I’m not saying Jewish day schools will be free—only that they should be. That seems a good place to start.”

Oppenheimer concludes the essay by once again pleading with his readers, hoping to persuade them with the simplicity and sincerity of his plea. “The potential base of support for Jewish schools is… quite broad. For passionate, engaged Jews, financially supporting Jewish education should be a no-brainer. But for those with a more inchoate longing, who have not figured out how to make Jewish community in their own lives, Jewish schooling is a way forward. These schools are diverse: Some are liberal, some not; some fiercely Zionist, others not; some single-sex; most co-ed. But they all teach children, and they all teach them Judaism. And that’s something. Maybe it’s everything.”

Oppenheimer’s essay should be read. Its greatest quality is the force of his honest pleading from the place of concern and aspiration occupied by all parents trying with love and worry – through financial difficulty and related pressures – simply to steer their children to a path of life paved with Jewish experience, traditions, outlook and values.

The Oppenheimer article is available at:

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/case-free-jewish-day-school

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

May 12, 2023

Last month, Tablet magazine published an essay entitled The Case for Free Jewish Day School.
It was written by Mark Oppenheimer, a senior editor at Tablet and the host of the podcast,
Unorthodox.
The piece is compelling for a number of reasons. It contains an impassioned restatement of the
first principle of the importance of day school education. Its tone is pleading without being
cloying. The author cites the Day School situation in Toronto as an important point of reference
for his advocacy. And finally, the author himself writes as a parent of children relatively recently
enrolled in day schools. He is not an expert in Education or in Pedagogy. Nor is he a community
activist or organizational planner. His suggestions are broad and deliberately not detailed. He
brings an honest, guile-less, refreshing naivete to his essay. He tries to appeal to the heart of the
reader as much as, if not more than, to his or her mind.
Oppenheimer’s essay is worthy of reading. Over the next two weeks, we will excerpt some of its
key points. In this update, we reproduce his thoughts about the importance of day school
education. Next week, we will feature his ideas on why (and how) such education should be free
to those who seek it for their children.

•••

The case for day school education
“Now that I’ve had an intensive immersion experience in the day-school world for six years, I
have come to this conclusion: Sending your child to a Jewish day school is one of those human
endeavors, like parenthood itself, or Ted Lasso, that you might not think is for you, but almost
surely is, if only you’ll give it a try. Once you’re in, you’re in, and the occasional gripes…. pale
next to the obvious advantages. Pretty soon, you’ve forgotten why you resisted, and you wonder
what took you so long.
“Every parent, and child, will have her or his own reasons for embracing a Jewish education,
which may include the schools’ effects on students’ long-term Jewish engagement, on their
Zionism, or on what scholar Alex Pomson, author of Inside Jewish Day Schools, calls “cultural
virtuosity.” As for me, I am impressed by Jewish schools’ obvious sense of purpose, which
astounded me when I saw it from the inside. … in Jewish schools the sense of mission is front
and center: to be knowledgeable about, custodians of, and practitioners of a glorious inherited
tradition. Jewish schools offer a reason for school beyond the college-obsession, or self-centered
careerism, now preached by many public and private schools.

2

Oppenheimer offers his suggestions for why day school education should be free (or almost free)
after the following segue: “If we are the people of the book; if we hope for Jewish continuity; if
we believe Judaism is life-enhancing and promotes human flourishing; if we believe Jewish
knowledge is as important as secular knowledge; if we believe our children have a right to know
this stuff; if we feel called, or even commanded, to do this; and if there is extraordinary wealth in
the Jewish community, then why do we only manage to fund most of these schools a little, or a
good amount, but not all the way?”
Oppenheimer’s question resonates in all Jewish communities in North America. He raises it, as
so many do and have in the past, with humility and with gratitude for the exceptional
philanthropy which we know and appreciate sustains all of Jewish communal life.
The Oppenheimer article is available at:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/case-free-jewish-day-school

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.
For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com
Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada.
Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
May 5, 2023

Readers of this weekly update know that Ontario Superior Court Justice Eugenia Papageorgiou reserved her judgment last week on the motion brought by the Attorneys General of Ontario and Canada to strike GAJE’s application for fairness in funding education in Ontario.

As of the date of this writing, Judge Papageorgiou has not yet delivered her decision. When GAJE learns the result, readers will too.

We reported last week that counsel for the governments steadfastly maintained that the 1996 Adler decision by the Supreme Court “was entirely dispositive of the application”. They argued that GAJE had failed to show compelling new circumstances or an evolution in the law since 1996 to warrant re-assessing the applicability of the Adler decision to our application. Thus, the Attorneys General advocated that our application should be dismissed at this early stage without any consideration of the merits of our case.

As we further reported last week, in response to the Attorneys General, GAJE’s counsel, David Matas and Jillian Siskind, spoke substantively, forcefully and often eloquently, reminding the judge that GAJE and the other applicants in the case are not seeking special treatment from the government. Rather, we are seeking equal treatment.

The following are brief restatements of some of the key arguments made by GAJE’s counsel:

• GAJE’s application is a community-based claim that aims to correct an injustice and an inequality. It’s time to put an end to discrimination in educational funding. There is nothing [in the sections of the Constitution enshrining educational funding] stopping the government from legislating for paying towards all other religious schools in the province.

• Ontario has a choice. It has chosen to fund [the education of] only one religious group.

• Favoring one religion over another is no longer tolerable in Ontario in the year 2023. The concept of equality had less “traction” in 1996 than it has in 2023. 2023 is a different world than it was in 1996.

• GAJE does not seek to alter the operation of S.93 in the Constitution [re: educational funding]. GAJE seeks to remedy the [operational injustice of the] Education Act.

GAJE’s counsel reminded the court that the Attorneys General had agreed some months ago that the Ontario Federation of Independent Schools (OFIS) could have intervenor status in the application itself challenging the fairness of Ontario’s funding only one religious grouping in the province.

The decision by the Attorneys not to oppose the request by OFIS to take part in the full hearing on the merits of the case seems to be clearly at odds with their request of Judge Papageorigiou to prevent that hearing – any hearing – on those merits.

And so, we await the judge’s decision.

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

April 28, 2023

In a hearing yesterday, April 20, before Ontario Superior Court Justice Eugenia Papageorgiou that lasted an entire day, the Attorneys General for Ontario and for Canada argued that GAJE’s application for fairness and equality in educational funding should be thrown out of court even before it has had the chance to receive a full hearing on its merits.

Counsel for the governments steadfastly maintained that the 1996 Adler decision by the Supreme Court “was entirely dispositive of the application”. They argued that we had not met the test required to set aside a decision of the Supreme Court, namely to show compelling new circumstances or an evolution in the law since the decision in question. They stated that since the Adler case is still “good law”, GAJE has “no chance of success” and thus our application should be dismissed at this early stage.

GAJE’s counsel, David Matas and Jillian Siskind, argued to the contrary. They suggested there are a number of reasons – based upon changing societal and educational circumstances and upon the evolution in the relevant law since 1996 – to warrant allowing our case to proceed through the courts for a full and substantive airing of the important issues related to equality in educational funding under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Education Act of Ontario.

GAJE’s case has “at least a glimmer of hope,” our counsel responded. “It is not baseless,” they said. As a result, the case should be given the opportunity to arrive at the courthouse door for thoughtful deliberation and proper consideration.

Our counsel spoke substantively, forcefully and often eloquently, reminding the judge that GAJE and the other applicants in the case are not seeking special treatment. Rather, we are seeking equal treatment under the law. One argument they raised will be especially familiar to our community.

They pointed out that the Attorneys-General were effectively attempting to freeze the application of the law in Ontario regarding educational funding to a time and to conditions that obtained nearly 30 years ago, in 1996. Citing words from the Supreme Court, however, they reminded the judge that the Constitution of Canada must be seen and interpreted as if it were a “living tree”. It must adapt, to be sure, in a precise and responsible way to ensure its ongoing relevance to ever-changing conditions of modern life.

GAJE’s effort to make Jewish education truly affordable to all families is an effort to help enable permanent, meaningful access to in-depth learning of the ancient-eternal values and way of life enshrined in the Torah. How touching and ironic, that the very plea our counsel made to the judge that she regard Canada’s Constitution as a “living tree”, is actually how our people have viewed the Torah for generations upon generations. It has always been and will always be our “living tree” as well. Our Tree of Life.

Judge Papageorgiou reserved her decision. We will share it when we know it.

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

April 21, 2023

Next week, on April 20, GAJE’s lawyers will be in court responding to a motion brought by the Attorneys General of Ontario and Canada that seeks to strike our application for fair educational funding. The governments are trying to have our case dismissed before we have even had an opportunity to argue its substantive merits. They allege that our application discloses no cause of action and therefore deserves no hearing.

As readers of this weekly update know, GAJE’s application ultimately asks the court to order the governments to act fairly towards the non-Catholic members of Ontario in the vital matter of educational funding. We are asking the court to declare that the refusal by the governments of Ontario and Canada to fully fund Jewish day schools in Ontario breaches the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Our lawsuit addresses the fundamental, even brazen, unfairness of school funding in Ontario. In our  province, Roman Catholic schools receive full public funding while the schools of other religions receive nothing. This arrangement stands in stark contrast to five other provinces – Quebec and all the provinces west of Ontario – where independent schools, including religious schools, receive public funding. We believe that Ontario’s discriminatory policy breaches the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and that this discrimination must finally end. Years of waiting, lobbying and hoping for successive Ontario governments to change this policy have been in vain. Because we have no other recourse to achieve justice and fairness in funding, we are now turning to the courts.

Ontario justifies its ongoing discriminatory funding practice on the Supreme Court’s decision in 1996, that provided legal sanction for its discrimination. And so, relying upon that decision, the attorneys general have decided to try to prevent the court from deliberating upon the important issues that cry out for consideration for all Ontario families some three decades later.

In the intervening 27 years since the 1996 decision, the facts and circumstances surrounding educational funding have significantly changed. The law too has begun to evolve to comprehend and try to accommodate those changed circumstances.

It is a sad comment that the governments prefer to prevent a full airing of the issue of fairness in educational funding, rather than let the courts help guide them to a better embrace of all of the issues underlying the funding anachronism for the benefit of all Ontario families. Thus, we head to court next week, placing our trust in the wisdom of our judges. We will share the decision of the court with GAJE supporters as soon as we have one.

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

April 14, 2023

In last week’s update we reminded readers of the seminal study released by Cardus in 2021 that carefully calibrated the cost to Ontario of actually providing some level of funding for the benefit of the children in the province’s independent schools.

We bear in mind that the Cardus researchers based their calculations on information available in 2021. But their study is as deeply relevant today as it was then. Indeed, more so. The study proves that the government’s decision not to give funding to independent schools turns on political will not on fiscal prudence.

Cardus established that within the scope of Ontario’s 2021 estimated annual budget, funding independent schools through a range of some 21 possible funding formulae – all of them based on current practices within Canada – would cost Ontario around 1/3 to 4/5 of 1 percent (0.3% to 0.8%) of the budget. “In other words,” the study concluded, “any of these funding options is a relatively minimal cost to substantially benefit the families who need it most.”

As we know, all of the western provinces as well as Quebec, find the financial means to provide funding for independent schools in their province.

Some 5 million people live in British Columbia. Its projected budgetary expenditures for 2023 was $81.2 billion.

The BC Ministry of Education and Child Care describes the purpose of school system thus: “to enable the more than 570,000 public school students, 89,000 independent school students, and more than 4,500 home-schooled children enrolled each school year, to develop their individual potential and to acquire the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to contribute to a healthy society and a prosperous and sustainable economy. “

Albertahas a population of 4.4 million people. The expenditures of the 2023 budget were forecast as some $68.3 billion.

Alberta’s Ministry of Education describes its education system as being “built on a values-based approach to accepting responsibility for all children and students. Inclusion is a way of thinking and acting that demonstrates universal acceptance of, and belonging for, all children and students.”

Ontario is the most populous province in the country. Some 15 million people live here. Ontario’s projected budget for 2023 is around $204 billion. Yet, the government has closed its heart to the children in its independent schools.

It is not surprising therefore, compared to BC and Alberta, the mission statement of our Ministry of Education is a meek statement of cliché and platitude. “The Ministry of Education is responsible for delivering a high-quality publicly funded education system from Kindergarten to Grade 12, and for the oversight of Ontario’s child care and early years system. The ministry is committed to ensuring the province remains a leading education system, both in English and French.”

Inexplicable, Ontario persists in finding no reason – neither sound public policy nor even conscience – to provide funds to independent schools. GAJE hopes this will change. GAJE hopes the courts will agree that this discrimination can no longer be justified in the year 2023.

•••

Passover begins this evening. It is our fervent hope that everyone who reads this update will enjoy the holiday and savour the commemoration as one of historic connection, religious significance and family delight.  

The messages deeply encoded into the Haggadah – some overt, many nuanced – are of hope. Each generation understood those messages according to the circumstances of their respective time. Never ever lose hope. That is the affirmation of a people used to struggling against greater numbers and against the odds. That message inspires GAJE.

•••

If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

•••

Chag Pesach samayach. Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

April 5, 2023

The Ontario government delivered its budget for the coming year and forecast expenditures of $204.7B. Of that amount the Ministry of Education estimates it will spend around $35 B. The treasurer also announced new initiatives for building more schools and child care spaces in the years to come.

The Education ministry states that the average provincial per-pupil funding amount is about $13,059 for 2022–23, an increase of $339 or 2.7 per cent from 2021–22. 

Once again, the government has rejected providing any level of funding for the approximately 150,000 children who attend independent schools in the province. Ontario’s callous treatment of them is puzzling, disheartening and unfair.

This recent attention on budgets and expenditures marks an appropriate moment to recall the seminal research study by Cardus in 2021 that actually calculated the potential cost to the provincial treasury of funding all students in Ontario’s schools. Not surprisingly, the study was entitled Funding All Students (https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/reports/the-cost-to-fund-students-in-ontario-independent-schools/).

GAJE highlighted the study’s key conclusions at the time it was released. A reiteration of those conclusions is warranted once again in light of the government’s regressive recalcitrance on this very important matter.

The following passages are excerpted from the study’s executive summary:

“This study presents the hypothetical economic costs of funding Ontario’s independent schools, if the province were to fully fund the sector or apply any of the existing partial-funding models in Canada.

“But before conducting the cost analysis, we first establish context and ask: Why should Ontario fund students at independent schools? Simply, as education is a socially formational good, society has a general interest in the education of the next generation of citizens. It is on this basis that taxes are raised to fund any child’s education. But as a morally formational good, parents have a prior and universal right to choose—and deeply personal interest in—their child’s education, and thus these public funds should follow families to their preferred school.

“Accordingly, funding is the norm around the world, as well as in Canada. Globally, 73 percent of countries at least partially fund independent schools—only one OECD country does not. In Canada outside Ontario, 75 percent of independent schools and 84 percent of independent-school students are partially publicly funded. Put differently, Ontario’s lack of funding is anomalous in both a global and Canadian context.

We…conclude that Ontario’s lack of financial support for independent-school students is an unjust and inequitable policy—uncharacteristic of a democratically elected government, especially in an advanced economy—that further disadvantages the already disadvantaged.

“To rectify this eccentric and unjust policy, there are seven funding schemes, all taken from actual practice in Canada, to estimate the cost of funding students in Ontario’s independent schools.

“The first applies full government funding to Ontario’s independent sector. Alternatively, Ontario can partially fund independent schools using a similar approach as any of the other provinces that partially fund this sector—from west to east: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan (two models), Manitoba, and Quebec. (In each of the seven funding schemes, the model recognizes that not all independent schools would qualify for or accept government funding, and this fact is accounted for in the analyses.)….

“Applying [three different] scenarios to each of the seven provincial funding schemes results in twenty-one cost estimations, ranging between $535.2 million and $1.539 billion in net annual cost to Ontario taxpayers.

“[W]ithin the scope of Ontario’s $186 billion annual budget, [Note: The Cardus study was published in 2021] this is around 1/3 to 4/5 of 1 percent (0.3% to 0.8%) of the budget. In other words, any of these funding options is a relatively minimal cost to substantially benefit the families who need it most.”

There is no doubt that provincial government expenditures support necessary, vital programs. No-one would deny this. What the Cardus study proves incontrovertibly however, is that including independent schools under the rubric of public funding is not – in truth – a matter of cost to the treasury. It is, rather, a matter of the will of the government.

That independent schools receive no funding at all from the provincial government is shameful.

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If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit for fairness in educational funding, please click here.

For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com

Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of underwriting the costs of the lawsuit.

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Shabbat shalom

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

March 31, 2023