On first look, the chair of Hamilton’s public school board is suggesting Ontario’s recent funding announcements, which includes changes to literacy and math curriculums, appear to just be a “repackaging of money” already announced.
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board’s (HWDSB) Dawn Danko is praising the “back to basics” focus on math and literacy but says the commitments announced this week by Education Minister Stephen Lecce “isn’t necessarily new money.”
“We do welcome a renewed focus on getting back to basics, focusing on math skills, core literacy skills and purposeful support for that,” Danko told 900 CHML’s Good Morning Hamilton.
“But what’s unfortunate is the announcement seems to just be repackaging of money that’s already had been spent previously…. It’s just a new way of talking about money that we’ve already had in our system.”
Included in the initiatives is the hiring of 1,000 new staff to boost math and literacy rates and the repurposing of unused school board lands to build affordable housing.
Close to $71 million is earmarked for the math plan in the 2023-24 academic year, with $109 million set aside to boost literacy rates in the province.
That funding would cover new staff, new lessons and additional tests.
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Lecce told 900 CHML’s Hamilton Today that the emphasis is on “challenging the status quo” on the subjects, which have been “very static.”
“This is a meaningful overhaul asking everyone involved to work smarter and harder to lift our standards to produce better academic results,” said Lecce.
“I don’t want to see another generation of young people living in their parents’ basement because they can’t get a job that pays them well enough to relate to their skills.”
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The line item of particular concern for Danko is the grants for student needs – a collection of grants determining the overall allocation of money to publicly funded school boards.
For the coming years, it boasts $690 million for Ontario boards, which the HWDSB estimates will fall short of the effect of Canada’s estimated inflation rate, currently at 4.3 per cent.
“When that doesn’t keep up with inflation, as this is not … we’re only looking at a 2.7 per cent increase, that’s actually a cut to education.”
Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board chair Pat Daly told Global News he was initially “pleased” with the recent funding announcement but admitted staff will need a “little bit of time” to review the impact.
Ontario will also launch a new student transportation funding formula in 2023-24, putting $111 million into a blueprint designed to be more transparent and help school boards provide more effective student carriage.
“We’re particularly grateful that the review has a new funding formula for student transportation, that’s been a long time coming,” Daly said.
Lecce also revealed the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act this week introducing sweeping new measures aimed at standardizing the education system to align with “provincial priorities” to give parents greater say over their children’s education.
The bill also gives the Ford government the power to convert underutilized schools in Ontario into affordable housing or sell off the properties on the open market in connection with a self-imposed goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031.
Danko doesn’t expect the stipulation to impact HWDSB properties, like the currently vacant Sir Isaac Brock or Sir John A. McDonald.
The Hamilton board already has an approach to its available properties by identifying future uses based on “growth projections for the community,” which benefits preferred partners – including coterminous boards.
“It sounds like it will be a shift in who else would be a preferred partner that could have an opportunity to purchase early and that could include the ministry use for long-term care and whatnot,” Danko said.
However, the chair admitted some frustration with the Sir John A. Macdonald site having seen the province reject proposed builds multiple times, including a proposal for a community hub with the YMCA and the City of Hamilton as partners.
The fear is the new legislation might allow the province to sell it off for the board.
“It’s always a bit concerning when there’s legislation that’s introduced giving powers to one person centrally, the minister in this case,” said Danko.
“We’re going to make sure that we’re part of the consultation and that we have input.”
HWCDSB chair Pat Daly says their board doesn’t have a lot of surplus facilities and also expects little impact.
“But again, it’s an area that we’re going to be looking at closely.”
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