Last week, we reported on the publication of the study by Cardus, the public policy think tank, entitled Naturally Diverse: The Landscape of Independent Schools in Ontario. The study is a timely work of research that provides current, detailed data of Ontario’s independent schools. The report’s authors – David Hunt, Joanna DeJong VanHof and Jenisa Los – enable the public to understand exactly who and what the province’s independent schools are. Equally important, they enable officials to make public policy based upon fact, not myth and in the process, put paid to the harmful, false notion that extending any funds to independent schools is to provide taxpayer funds to the well-heeled families of the province’s elite schools.

The study is a seminal work focused solely on independent schools in Ontario. It ought to be read by the Minister of Education, his ministry policy officials, his personal staff and by every Member of the Provincial Parliament.

Because of its importance, we shall refer this week as well to some of the key introductory remarks by the authors. They identify a number of core questions that the study explores:

• What types and subtypes of independent schools make up the sector?

• What is the purpose of these schools?

• How do they differentiate themselves?

• What is the nature of independent schools?

• Why do they exist?

The authors examine where the schools are located and how they deliver their education, along with other key factors that define Ontario’s independent-school landscape.

There is no doubt that more parents are choosing independent schools for the unique learning and educational needs of their children. The report notes that over the past two decades, enrolment in Ontario’s independent schools has increased from 4.1 percent of total K–12 provincial enrolment to 7 percent.

The authors conclusively prove that independent schools are a multi-purpose, multi-faceted, multi-pedagogical tapestry of diverse families and students. They are definitively NOT a bastion of elite, top tier schools. Merely 61 of the 1,445 independent schools—4.2 percent— are “top tier” schools.

As with the community’s day schools, the authors state without ambiguity that “independent schools in Ontario are typically non-profit charities that are financed entirely by tuition fees and donation. …No public funding is provided to independent schools in Ontario.”

The empirically unassailable information contained in this report calls to conscience.

How can Ontario simply ignore the families and the children in independent schools? How can Ontario prefer and support the education of only one religious group in the province to the exclusion of the others? What does Ontario’s unjust, unfair, anachronistic education funding policy say about the province’s true loyalty to our charter of rights and freedoms?

The full report can be found at:

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

•••

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.comvCharitable 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)

December 2, 2022

Ontario is the glaring outlier among the six most populous provinces in Canada, adamantly and illogically refusing to extend public funds to independent schools.

It has always been assumed that one of the reasons for Ontario’s obstinacy has been the presumed extra expense of doing so. But reputable, definitive studies and the experiences of the western provinces and of Quebec categorically refute this assumption.

It has also always been assumed that another reason for Ontario’s abject refusal to help fund independent schools has been to avoid the perceived threat such funding would pose to the viability of the public school board system. But here too, reputable, definitive studies and the experiences of the western provinces and of Quebec refute this assumption.

It has also been assumed that Ontario’s denial of any funds to independent schools stems from the fear of appearing to lavish taxpayer funds upon the very well-heeled families of the province’s elite schools. Now however, there is definitive proof dispelling the harmful, inaccurate, even mendacious stereotypes regarding independent schools and the families and the children who comprise them.

Cardus, the public policy think tank, this week published a report entitled, Naturally Diverse: The Landscape of Independent Schools in Ontario, that provides an up-to-date, detailed snapshot of Ontario’s independent schools. The authors of the report David Hunt, Joanna DeJong VanHof and Jenisa Los have provided an innovative, ground-breaking study that enables policy-makers and the curious public to understand exactly who and what are the province’s independent schools.

The authors identified three reasons for conducting the study. “First, there is no accepted or widely used typology of independent schools. Second, independent schools are poorly understood in Ontario, which leads to misinformed public narratives and affects public policy. And third, the sector has grown considerably in recent years. Despite dozens of independent schools closing each year, the number of independent schools in Ontario has increased by at least 51.5 percent since the last (and only) study of this kind was conducted—from 954 in 2013–14 to at least 1,445 as of July 2022. “

The authors identified six distinct types of independent schools: Religious, Special Emphasis (e.g., Montessori, STEM, Arts), Top Tier (member of an elite school association), Preparatory, Credit Emphasis, and Other. According to these six types of independent schools, they counted and analyzed 1,445 schools. In addition to school type, the authors “explored schools’ different approaches to educational delivery, accreditation and school-association membership, geographic location, and additional variables like school size.”

For the brief summary purpose of this GAJE update and to help to finally put paid to the false notion that independent schools are but bastions for the elite and the wealthy, the report categorizes merely 61 of the 1,445 independent schools—4.2 percent— to be Top Tier schools.

“Ontario’s independent-school landscape is robust in its diversity. Special Emphasis schools, for instance, accommodate an immense variety of pedagogical approaches, educational philosophies, lifestyle decisions such as high-performance sport training, neurodiverse learning styles, and other non-traditional learning opportunities.

“Independent schools serve a diverse set of students and needs that district schools do not or cannot, given that district schools exist to provide universal education. Pluralism in education contributes to the common good. An increasing number of Ontario families are enrolling their children in independent schools, and their reasons for doing so vary. We hope that our research will encourage Ministry of Education officials, policy-makers, researchers, and the general public to better understand these varied motivations, needs, and purposes of the families and the schools that make up this innovative and growing sector.”

This important report should be consulted and widely shared. It is beyond unconscionable that Ontario’s education system in 2022 is indifferent and oblivious to the widely differing, educational needs of its diverse population, only supports and favours the education of one religious group to the exclusion of all others, and appears to base its policy upon outdated thinking and entirely false factual assumptions.

The full report can be found at:

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

•••

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.comvCharitable 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)

November 25, 2022

The unresolved contractual dispute between the Ministry of Education and the CUPE-
represented, non-teaching, education workers of the province breathes more life into the
proposition that the education funding structure in Ontario is anachronistic and in need of
remedy.

In an article published last week in The Hub, Brian Dijkema, vice president, external affairs of
Cardus, provides a digest-like primer of the legal and societal issues at play in the conflict.
Dijkema points out that there have been over 100 education strikes in Ontario since 1975.
Without derogating in any manner from the historic societal importance of collective bargaining
rights or from the imperative of governments to wisely manage taxpayers’ monies, it is not
unreasonable to conclude that Ontario’s current education structure is not working in the best
interests of the wide diversity of all Ontario families. Dijkema implies that in these recurring
contractual disputes, the collateral damage falls upon parents and the children.

Dijkema identifies the structural flaw within the province’s education structure that leads to the
sector’s predictably cyclical industrial strife. “Governments of all stripes have increasingly
centralized Ontario’s education system over the years. This leaves it at the mercy of province-
wide labour disruptions. By building what is effectively a centrally controlled monopoly on
education provision, the government itself is to blame for the concentration of the power it
decries. It has the power to reshape the system. It has failed to distribute that power within the
system.”

Of course, he also suggests how the government can reshape the current system. “A more
pluralist educational system—which gives various school options to families—would act as a
check on strikes. An education system that had a range of provincially regulated and funded
independent and public school board options would distribute power and place the balance
of power in the hands of those who are currently powerless: parents. It would also remove
significant parts of education, from the sphere of the state, and into the realm of civil society
where it appropriately belongs.”

Dijkema’s prescription makes a great deal of sense. It is time for Ontario to also provide funding
to independent schools. That is the substantively appropriate thing to do. It is also the fair and
equitable thing to do.

Dijkema’s article is available at:

https://thehub.ca/2022-11-03/brian-dijkema-parents-and-children-are-bystanders-in-a-war-between-two-hostile-parties-in-ontario/

•••

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.comvCharitable
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)
November 18, 2022

Some weeks ago, we brought readers attention to an article by David Hunt, education director at the think-tank Cardus, published in the Financial Post that responded to an op-ed in The Globe and Mail calling for Ontario to stop funding Catholic schools. Hunt answered the columnist’s doubts concerning the positive impact of funding independent schools. “Rather than defund religious schools,” Hunt concluded, “it’s time to allow funding to follow all students to their school of best fit — religious or non-religious.”

In this week’s update we again point to a recent Hunt article in the Financial Post. Hunt rebutting yet another op-ed in the Globe and Mail (this time by Robyn Urback) that repeats the call for Ontario to stop funding Ontario’s Catholic “separate” schools because it is “no longer relevant or defensible in 2022.”

Of course, Hunt has a different view.  He says, simply, that Urback is wrong.

Hunt cites evidence that enabling children to attend denominational schools that suit them, actually substantively improves students’ education. He then mentions an additional, equally compelling benefit to the inclusion of  “independent” schools into the publicly-funded system.

“Dr. Ashley Berner of Johns Hopkins University reports, the overwhelming majority of successful democracies do not view education as the exclusive domain of a secular state. Rather, the state, individuals and civil society play equally important roles in educating the next generation.

“Democracy assumes diverse perspectives. Educating for a strong democracy requires no less. Which is why most of the world’s democratic education systems offer public funding to a wide variety of school types — including religious schools, because they, too, form citizens for the common good.

“Rather than revoking Catholics’ constitutional rights, let’s expand religious-school funding to all faith communities in Canada. But let’s not stop there. Let’s also continue to protect the rights of Canada’s boldest minority group — secularists.  Rather than stamp out competing perspectives, let pluralism bloom.”

GAJE agrees with Hunt’s conclusions. The evidence is overwhelming: by extending the public hand to denominational and non-denominational independent schools, the government is actually enhancing the overall educational, social and civic wellbeing of the public body itself.

Hunt’s article is available at:

https://financialpost.com/opinion/extend-dont-ban-public-funding-religious-schools

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ADRABA

Because it is part of GAJE’s mission to champion Jewish education, we are pleased to update readers on the status of ADRABA (adraba.ca), the innovative, online Jewish school that began its third year of instruction just recently after the conclusion of Sukkot.

ADRABA provides a uniquely Jewish and engaging approach to the study of Canadian history, the Middle Ages and food culture. The school also offers a “reach ahead” opportunity for Grade 8 learners who are keen on Canadian history. Every ADRABA course is online, hands on, for-credit, and an unparalleled experience. There is still time to register for this year if families and students are interested at adraba.ca/online.

Next year, ADRABA will be adding a for-credit course in Media Studies that will sharpen critical thinking as it unpacks the coverage in mainstream and new media of “the Mideast Conflict”. Students may register for this course now at adraba.ca/mediastudies as spaces are limited.

•••

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.comvCharitable 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)

November 11, 2022

As a contextual footing for advising readers last week that UJA Federation had updated its Day School Scholarships website, we restated the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ life-long credo that a strong Jewish future relied upon strong Jewish education.

“If you want to save the Jewish future, you have to build Jewish day schools. There is no other way,” Rabbi Sacks told a conference in the U.S. on Jewish education in 2014. Deborah Fishman, then Director of Communications for The AVI CHAI Foundation reported upon Rabbi Sacks’ remarks in an article that was published on the eJewishPhilanthopy website.

Rabbi Sacks referred to the British Jewish educational experience when he spoke about the state of Jewish education in the US at that time, His observations then, nearly nine years ago, were deeply relevant to our own experience and are still so today.

Fishman reported: “Today [2014], the younger generation of British Jewry is more religiously and Jewishly committed than their parents …..Rabbi Sacks squarely attributes the state of his community to the fact that, in [the past] 30 years, his community built more day schools. Whereas [in 1980] 10% of those 65 or older went to a Jewish day school, in 2013, 70% of Jewish children were attending.”

Rabbi Sacks explained how Jewish attitudes toward day school changed in the UK.

As Fishman noted, there were two reasons. “He credited the schools themselves, for their great secular and Jewish results, emphasis on chesed, and active engagement in British society.” 

In addition, Rabbi Sacks pointed out that the community was able to convince the government to help fund Jewish day school education. Once the British government opted to contribute to the cost of Jewish education, enrollment in the schools skyrocketed.

The lesson for our community is quite plain. And taking that lesson to heart, GAJE will not desist in our effort to bring fairness to the province’s educational funding policies until every path is barred to us.

Fishman’s full article is available at:

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “If You Want to Save the Jewish Future, You Have to Build Jewish Day Schools”

•••

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)

November 4, 2022

One of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks recurring urgent messages to the Jewish people wherever he met us, across the wide expanse of his much-traveled horizons, was: “If you want to save the Jewish future, you have to build Jewish day schools. There is no other way.”

He never shied away from confidently, yet humbly, without any hesitation or doubt, sharing this keystone Jewish and personal belief with his audiences.

It is against the permanent relevance of Rabbi Sacks’ tribute to education that we call attention to a recent announcement by Daniel Held, Chief Program Officer, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

UJA Federation has introduced a new Day School Scholarships website “to help more children and youth access a day school education.” They revised the Day School Scholarships application system “to make it easier” to access. Applications are now open for all Day School Scholarships for the 2023’24 school year.

Held pointed out that day school enrollment has grown for a third straight year.

GAJE is confident that the increase in enrollment stems from recent funding initiatives by the UJA Federation aimed at trying to make school tuition more affordable for young families. There is indeed a direct correlation between level of tuition and level of enrollment. In addition, we note the special efforts of Jewish day schools steering through the pandemic with innovation, commitment and excellence, in a manner that most of the public schools did not or could not. Many parents took note of this as well and opted to enrol their children in day school.

The Day School Scholarships website can be accessed at:

https://www.jewishtoronto.com/cje/dayschoolscholarships?utm_source=eblast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=October_24_Day_School_Scholarships

•••

Important announcement for parents

The Ministry of Education announced a program of direct one-time distribution of either $200 or $250 to parents for each child to help with the costs of their children’s tutoring, supplies or equipment during the 2022–23 school year. The deadline to apply is 11:59 EST on March 31.

Unlike the distribution last year of the federal Covid safety funds for a safe return to school, Queen’s Park decided to make children in “private” schools eligible for the grant.

The application process and eligibility criteria are available at:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/catch-up-payments

•••

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)

October 28, 2022

One of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks recurring urgent messages to the Jewish people wherever he met us, across the wide expanse of his much-traveled horizons, was: “If you want to save the Jewish future, you have to build Jewish day schools. There is no other way.”

He never shied away from confidently, yet humbly, without any hesitation or doubt, sharing this keystone Jewish and personal belief with his audiences.

It is against the permanent relevance of Rabbi Sacks’ tribute to education that we call attention to a recent announcement by Daniel Held, Chief Program Officer, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

UJA Federation has introduced a new Day School Scholarships website “to help more children and youth access a day school education.” They revised the Day School Scholarships application system “to make it easier” to access. Applications are now open for all Day School Scholarships for the 2023’24 school year.

Held pointed out that day school enrollment has grown for a third straight year.

GAJE is confident that the increase in enrollment stems from recent funding initiatives by the UJA Federation aimed at trying to make school tuition more affordable for young families. There is indeed a direct correlation between level of tuition and level of enrollment. In addition, we note the special efforts of Jewish day schools steering through the pandemic with innovation, commitment and excellence, in a manner that most of the public schools did not or could not. Many parents took note of this as well and opted to enrol their children in day school.

The Day School Scholarships website can be accessed at:

https://www.jewishtoronto.com/cje/dayschoolscholarships?utm_source=eblast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=October_24_Day_School_Scholarships

•••

Important announcement for parents

The Ministry of Education announced a program of direct one-time distribution of either $200 or $250 to parents for each child to help with the costs of their children’s tutoring, supplies or equipment during the 2022–23 school year. The deadline to apply is 11:59 EST on March 31.

Unlike the distribution last year of the federal Covid safety funds for a safe return to school, Queen’s Park decided to make children in “private” schools eligible for the grant.

The application process and eligibility criteria are available at:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/catch-up-payments

•••

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)

October 28, 2022

At the end of September, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), a non-profit, non-partisan, highly reputed, think tank based in Jerusalem released 2022 Annual Assessment of the Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People.

The institute’s scholars and researchers conduct their annual assessment of the state of the Jewish people across a wide range of factors and indicia. The JPPI was founded some two decades ago for “the purpose of promoting and securing the Jewish people and Israel.” The annual assessment has become an important launching pad for study, strategic discussion and pragmatic intra and inter-communal policy development among lay and professional leaders throughout the Jewish world.

Not surprisingly, yet no less dishearteningly, this year’s assessment concludes that “the indicators for Jewish safety and well-being are in decline.”

On the subject of Israel-Diaspora relations, the focus of the discussion is Israel’s relationship with the Jews of the United States. This is as it should be given the overwhelmingly important nature of the relationship between Israel and the U.S. as well as the fact that the number of Jews in the U.S. comprises between 40-45% of the number of Jews in the world. Even with its particular American focus, Canadians can parse and apply the report’s conclusions to our own situation. We have been doing so at least since World War II.

The report delves into the geopolitical uncertainty that has intensified in the last year with implications for Israel and the Jewish people. The Institute sees major warning signs for Israel-Diaspora (American) relations in the fact that most American Jews support the Democratic Party which is trending leftward with serious implications for American policy toward Israel and the rise of antisemitism worldwide.

The report quotes JPPI President, Prof. Yedidia Stern: “The core beliefs and emotional ties that ‘made us one’ are dramatically weakening while those on the margins are growing, ideologically and identity-wise within Israel and outside it.”

According to the report, “distancing from Israel is becoming such a significant issue among college-aged Jews and Zionism is a very problematic word in some of the elite universities in the United States. In the Judaism [among college-aged Jews], there is little religious or national currency, mostly just a cultural connection. Only a third of the young Jews, under 30, say that it is very important that their grandchildren be Jews. The overall result is threefold: a reduction and dilution of the share of non-religious Jewish identity in the Diaspora; a reduction of the pro-Israel resolve among the elite of the next generation of Jews; and increased polarization among American Jews – political, religious, cultural.”

The JPPI addressed a large number of specific recommendations on the subject to the government of Israel and to the appropriate governmental organizations there. But one of its key recommendations regarding Israel-Diaspora relations was directed to the Jewish communities abroad. It stands out like a flashing neon sign against a dark wall.

“Diaspora communities (with the assistance of Israel) should prioritize significant Jewish education projects – financially, socially, and institutionally.”

JPPI’s plea is not new. Variations of the same recommendation have been made in the past. They make the case however that the plea in 2022 is more urgent than it was in the past because of the upheaving effect of the radically affective instruments of social media upon most aspects of our lives and because of the unprecedented dysfunction in the respective governmental-political systems.  

Thankfully, our community leaders do place Jewish education – including significant education projects –  at the highest of communal priorities. They know that Jewish education is the seed from which all future communities will be sustained as thrivingly Jewish in every important respect.

GAJE’s narrow focus is to help make Jewish education truly affordable to the young families that seek it for their children.

(To read the 2022 JPPI annual assessment go to its website at https://jppi.org.il)

•••

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)

October 21, 2022

Ontario’s continuing unwillingness to include some measure of funding for independent schools is perplexing. The province’s approach is entirely out of step with that of the next five largest provinces. It is out of step with proven best educational practices and with proven budgetary efficiencies. Indeed, it is out of step with the educational approach in most of the western world.

But that the province maintained its “principled” funding boycott of the children in independent schools in the challenging throes of an unprecedented pandemic health crisis was disappointing and, truth be told, cruel.

Not wishing to attribute the Minister of Education’s decisions to malice or indifference, we imagine he and his advisors are operating on the basis of old, stereotype-laden opinions and incorrect information concerning the nature of independent schools in Ontario. It is therefore incumbent that we attempt to inform and update the minister, his advisors, his cabinet colleagues, his parliamentary colleagues and ultimately, the premier with current, empirically unassailable data about independent schools, the children who attend them and the parents who send them there.

A good beginning to this vital endeavour is to call attention to a recent interview given to The Hub by Deani Van Pelt. As described by her interviewer Sean Speer, Van Pelt, is “a senior fellow at the Cardus Institute, as well as the Fraser Institute, a visiting fellow in Charlotte Mason Studies at the University of Cumbria in the United Kingdom, the president of Edvance Christian Schools Association, and one of the country’s most thoughtful and compassionate voices for what she describes as educational pluralism.”

We have pointed to Van Pelt’s expertise in this space before. She is a highly qualified and highly recommended spokesperson on the subject of independent schools. The interview is an excellent primer, in summary form, of the information we need to bring to the men and women at Queen’s Park.

Van Pelt defines an independent school as “a school that is operated by a non-government agent. So what is that? Typically, it’s a not-for-profit, a good set of community folks get together and say, “Let’s design a school around various ideas,” whether they’re pedagogical, philosophical or other convictions, and the school gets set up, registers as an independent school in its area of jurisdiction and moves forward. Does it mean it’s not regulated? Of course not. Does it mean it gets government funding? In most cases across the world, yes, it does. Educational pluralism is very simply, as we said, just that space for more providers than government agents.” 

Van Pelt offers four categories of benefits for developing a pluralistic model for students and for the educational system as a whole.

“There’s this argument about good fit. When there’s a good match between the family, between the student and their own convictions, and the school that the child attends, you see better academic outcomes….When the fit is good, a child thrives and the success academically is measurable in quite a significant way. 

“Secondly, it makes access to diverse forms of education more equitable. So, there’s a very large OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, study that looked at 65 countries that partially fund independent schools. And in the countries that partially, or even more significantly, fund over 50 percent of the cost of the independent schools, the socio-economic disparity across families that choose independent schools or families that choose government schools almost disappears.

“The third reason would be about social cohesion. An excellent study about that was done by Ashley Berner recently out of Johns Hopkins University…found that taken together, the contribution of independent schools towards civic engagement actually outperforms

their colleagues in government-provided schooling. So, it contributes, in a nutshell, to good citizens. 

“The last thing is we get good results when there’s more choice. There are strong incentives for a school to look over its shoulder and say, “They’re doing well over there. They’re attracting some folks over there. Let’s take a look.”

The entire interview is worth reading or hearing and forwarded, in turn, to our elected representatives. They should educate themselves on the actual, not imagined, true, not false, nature of Ontario’s independent schools.

The full interview with Deani Van Pelt is available at:

Educational pluralism puts children and families first. Deani Van Pelt explains why

•••

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)

October 14, 2022

At the beginning of the week, on October 3, the Court granted leave to the Ontario Federation of Independent Schools (OFIS), with the consent of the Attorneys General of Ontario and Canada, (AGs) to intervene in our application as a friend of the court. To obtain the AGs consent, OFIS agreed not to participate in the AGs motion to strike our case (scheduled for April 20, 2023) and to abide by certain evidentiary filing restrictions on the main constitutional law application launched by GAJE and some individual plaintiffs.

•••

Also at the beginning of this week, the Divisional Court delivered its decision in the “Safe Return to Class (anti-Covid) Fund”. Readers will recall that three independent schools  – two religious, one non-denominational – brought the application to compel Queen’s Park to distribute some of the $763 million Ontario received from the federal government within a specially designated Safe Return to Class Fund. The application was heard on an emergency basis in August 2021, before the start of the school year one year ago.

The size of the Covid safety fund was calculated by the federal government on the basis of the number of children aged 4-18 years-old attending school in Ontario. Ontario gave no money whatsoever to the children attending independent schools despite the ravages of the public health crisis wrought by Covid.

The court dismissed the application. The court agreed with Ontario that independent schools are private schools for the purpose of the The Education Act and as such, the government has no funding obligations toward private schools.

The following passages illustrate some aspects of the court’s reasoning:

“The basis used by Canada to apportion funds among provinces and territories did not create a legal obligation for Ontario to provide funding to private schools. Governments, at all levels, were struggling to address an apprehended public health crisis. Use of a particular data set by Canada in this context is not a basis on which to imply legal restrictions on Ontario’s exercise of its own sovereignty over education and health matters within the province – a sovereignty acknowledged and respected by “the flexibility [afforded Ontario] to spend the fund in accordance with their education sector’s priorities.””

“Ontario has no obligation to fund private religious schools.”

“There is no unfairness in Ontario taking different approaches to addressing issues arising in the private sector and issues arising in publicly funded institutions.”

The remarkable indifference by Queen’s Park through the Covid health crisis to the then uncharted, worrisome health risks to children in independent schools (or as the government prefers to call them, private schools) was utterly unconscionable. Absent legal obligation, was there no obligation of conscience, of the heart, of sheer decency and concern for the health, safety and well-being of all Ontario’s children? The callousness of the Ministry of Education was ever more egregious in light of the fact that the monies for the special fund were drawn entirely from the federal government and represented no call upon the budgeted provincial treasury.

The court’s imprimatur of the government’s breathtaking indifference proves the merit of GAJE’s attempting to bring change to the rules by which Queen’s Park justifies its unfair educational funding.

•••

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 and gmar chatimah tovah.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

October 7, 2022