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.

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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.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.

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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”

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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.

•••

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

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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.

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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

The research demonstrating how Ontario’s educational funding is deeply anachronistic is piling very high. By actively disregarding the best funding practices from jurisdictions throughout the free world, Queen’s Park is holding back Ontario education and Ontario students.

More evidence of this fact emerged in an op-ed entitled Let school money follow students,  written by David Hunt, education director at the think-tank Cardus, that appeared yesterday in the Financial Post.

Hunt responded directly to two questions posed earlier in the month by The Globe and Mail columnist Marsha Lederman: “In our secular society, why is any province funding religious schools? And why on Earth are we subsidizing private schools that are out of reach for most families?” Hunt suggested Lederman’s questions were rhetorical, but even if so, they were asked in earnest and reflect the thinking of other well-meaning, thoughtful, civic-minded individuals.

Hunt provided answers to from three broad perspectives: global, historical, and cultural perspectives. And it is good that he did. For his responses are factual and current. To the policy discussion about public education funding, Hunt adds up-to-date, empirically researched information. The data from Canadian and other places’ educational experiences are absent in the public conversation about public education. Rather, in their place, old assumptions and incorrect stereotypes  too commonly dominate public attitudes toward independent schools. But how can we reject facts when devising the best possible public policy? Indeed, are not facts and truth not indispensable to the formulation of public policy?

According to Hunt “in 100 countries, representing 94 per cent of the world’s population, taxpayers fund independent schools at least partially.” We reproduce the concluding paragraph from his article. He responds to the tired, no-longer-true assumptions about children who graduate from religious schools.

“A comprehensive 2021 review of the academic literature shows independent schools excel in helping students become good, engaged citizens. Religious independent schools excel at imparting and encouraging political knowledge, civic engagement, and respect for the civil liberties and opinions of others. “On almost every measure, independent-school attendance enhances civic outcomes,” says Dr. Ashley Berner, director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. “Thus, democratic policy-makers can have confidence that expanding access to independent schools while ensuring their quality is likely to enhance the civic capabilities of young people and lead, eventually, to a more civically integrated and politically engaged public.

Why would we want to limit the number of students who can benefit from such an education? Most especially, when all society reaps the benefits? Rather than defund religious schools, it’s time to allow funding to follow all students to their school of best fit — religious or non-religious.”

We commend Hunt’s op-ed to everyone seeking out the facts of the matter of adopting the best public educational policy. His article is an excellent starting point. Hunt makes his case on the basis of substantive comparative, cultural and historical arguments. GAJE points out however, that he avoids arguments on the basis of eliminating the blatantly unfair, unjust, discriminatory policy that is the hallmark of Ontario’s current educational funding policy.

Hunt’s article is available at:

https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-let-school-money-follow-students

•••

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)

September 30, 2022

This weekly update is the last one of Jewish calendar year 5782, for on Sunday night we celebrate Rosh Hashana. We usher in the year 5783.

Towards the end of his life, the late, great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described the essence of Rosh Hashana as thinking of, securing and building the future. We cannot mend the personal ruptures of the past, which is the essence of Yom Kippur, he said, until we focus our eyes and steer our hearts toward the future. Thus, with his nugget-like, shining wisdom, Rabbi Sacks answered a question that has puzzled so many of us who think about liturgy and lore.

During the two days of Rosh Hashana, none of the Torah and Haftarah readings relate, as one might think they would, to the mysteries and wonders of Creation- which, after all, is the theme that recurs throughout the holiday’s prayers. Rather, the Mosaic and prophetic readings on both days relate specifically to children.

The Torah readings recount the births of Isaac and then, on the second day of the holiday, of Isaac’s binding and near sacrifice. The Haftarah on the first day tells of the birth of the prophet Samuel, and then on the next day concludes with a generalized plea about our children to the Jewish people by the prophet Jeremiah to “weep no more” and a promise in God’s name that  “our hard work will be rewarded. Our children will return from harm’s way. There is hope for our future. Our children will return safely to where they belong”.

It is both a small leap in logic and in literary interpretation to understand the connection between Rabbi Sack’s insight concerning the future and the very deliberate holy readings. Where our children belong is within the Jewish fold of peoplehood. As Rabbi Sacks also pointed out forcefully and eloquently so many times, the Jewish future, Jewish peoplehood, depend upon Jewish education. We secure and build that future by bringing as many youngsters as possible into the affordable possibility and sustaining domain of Jewish education. That purpose, to help build the Jewish future, is the promise of GAJE to the community.

May we be able to say at this time next year that truly affordable Jewish education in Ontario has become a closer reality for the families that seek it for their children.

Shabbat shalom and l’shana tovah techatevu v’techatemu.

Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)

September 23, 2022

This week we point to yet another op-ed written by an expert in education who calls for Ontario to reform its flawed, discriminatory, outdated educational funding practices.

Derek J. Allison, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario wrote an essay entitled, Ontario parents deserve more school choice, that appeared in The Toronto Star two years ago.

The headline, of course, encapsulates the message that Queen’s Park has been ignoring even as it has been embraced and adopted by most of the other provinces and a wide majority swath of first world, Western society in general to the enhancement of their respective educational systems.

Prof. Allison traces the history of Ontario’s unyielding educational fixation, explaining how it is that the government pointedly discrimination against non-Catholic families and turns a blind eye to the documented evidence that the educational status quo actually holds back all Ontario schools from achieving higher overall educational outcomes.

“The story began in 1984,” Allison writes, “when then-premier Bill Davis famously extended public funding to senior grades in Ontario’s Catholic separate high schools, which previously operated as private schools. To be even-handed, Davis also established the Shapiro Commission to consider whether other private schools should receive government funding.”

“Ultimately, Shapiro recommended limited funding for private schools (that satisfied appropriate standards) and extensive regulatory reforms. “

Indeed, the educational funding today in all of the western provinces and in Quebec effectively follow the approach recommended by Prof. Shapiro. Allison briefly describes how subsequent Ontario governments have steered an educational funding course very far away from the Shapiro recommendations.

Prof. Allison does not spare past and current Ontario governments. He refers to a study by the Fraser Institute published contemporaneously to his article demonstrating how “Ontario has maintained a laissez-faire policy toward non-government schools for more than a century. Meanwhile, other provinces, states and countries have moved toward tax-supported hybrid systems, which offer parents and students choice between government-run and independently operated schools. Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and Saskatchewan all fund independent schools, which operate with varying degrees of autonomy and government support, and 29 U.S. states operate more than 60 different tax credit- and tax-supported school choice programs. All major European countries fund non-government schools.

“As such, school choice has increasingly been accepted as a parental right. Consequently, the government-supported conditional choices between public, separate, English- and French-language schools currently available in Ontario are woefully lacking. All parents should have the freedom to send their children to the schools they believe best suit their needs, talents and heritage. Research shows this not only benefits families choosing non-government schools, but it helps improve public schools. School choice is a tide that raises all boats.”

The point cannot be overstated. Ontario’s educational system should be changed to respect and accommodate all parents in the province seeking to provide their children the education – in the words of Prof. Allison – that best suits their needs, talents and heritage.

Prof. Allison’s article is available at:

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/ontario-parents-deserve-more-school-choice

•••

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)

September 16, 2022