One would still be cheaper than two...
Another day another challenge to having two school boards in Ontario. My thoughts on this are well known. I would prefer one school system with all of our tax dollars going to it, rather than the divide and conquer approach. Maybe then it wouldn’t cost parents and students so much outside of taxes every year.
I remember going back to high school years ago and having to pony up 10 bucks for the cost of a yearbook and a lock for my locker. Parents, at the time, complained that going back to school was becoming too expensive. Those parents would have a collective cardiac if they got the bill today. In the last little while Ontario schools raising more than half a billion dollars a year through fundraising, student fees, corporate donations and other charges.
The growing use of private money in public schools raises questions about haves and have nots when one school can raise $200,000 while another raises nothing. The worry is that as the schools get used to the money coming in boards begin to rely on it in their budgets.
A school with 900 students, charging each a $50 fee, would bring in $45,000 a year. Money like that can be a narcotic…tough to do without once you have a taste for it…
The average Ontario student activity fee is $40, up 55% since 2001. If you want to play sports its even higher with some having to come up with $500!
A People for Education report say fundraising has become the “number one activity” of parent councils.
None of this will come as a great surprise to parents…We just had to pay 60 dollars for one daughter to go back to high school and 105 dollars for a daughter in grade 12 plus lots of little costs for a 5 year old in SK. Heaven knows what his high school costs will be in a few years. Our oldest is a teacher and put up hundreds of her own money to pay for supplies that don’t come from the board. Between you and me…we pay enough in education taxes that it shouldn’t cost extra for our children to get a public education. The again, we pay enough taxes that we shouldn’t have to pay extra for health care…Who runs these things??? That’s the question isn’t it…