Archive for the ‘Education Debates’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
7th graders go on field trip to protest with OCAP
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
Apr 6, 2011
“… students had been discussing the issue of poverty and looking at the elements of the provincial budget that address poverty and hunger,”… the goal of the protest trip was “to teach students how they can make a difference… and part of that is how to engage our civic leaders in respectful ways.”… The west-end Toronto school… focuses on peace and social justice issues, with subjects taught “through the lens of race, class, gender, sexuality and ability,”… Each spring, students dedicate one week to volunteering for justice-based community and international organizations…
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Brain strategy
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Mar. 25, 2011
As a practising child psychiatrist, I am acutely aware of the devastating consequences that result from a lack of national strategy on mental health and brain disorders. One out of five children has a diagnosable mental health problem, but only one out of six gets the help needed. The reasons include stigma, lack of resources, inadequate public education, caregiver burnout and lack of research to support new treatments. The biggest cause of “brain drain” is not doctors leaving Canada to practise elsewhere – it’s neglect of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Tags: child care, Health, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Ignatieff looks to education in election strategy
Monday, March 7th, 2011
Mar. 6, 2011
Mr. Ignatieff has painted only the broad strokes of his learning plan: ensuring post-secondary education is affordable and investing in early learning and child care, Aboriginal education, literacy programs, language training for immigrants and skills training. But he promises the plan will help create jobs, and he argues that the Conservative government should be investing more in education to boost Canada’s economic recovery instead of giving billions of dollars worth of tax breaks to businesses.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
Fund pathways to education, not to prison
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Mar. 05, 2011
For $5-million a year, the Conservative government has made an investment in young people that makes spectacular sense. It also undermines the logic of the government’s U.S.-style prison expansion, which will cost Ottawa nearly $1-billion a year, and the provinces about the same amount… Pathways to Education, which will receive $20-million over four years, is a remarkable program devised by a community health centre in Toronto’s inner city… Its results are astonishing. It cut the dropout rate among 700 students from 56 per cent to 12 per cent
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, participation, poverty
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
900 more Ontario schools to offer full-day kindergarten in 2012: McGuinty
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
March 2, 2011
The province has named the additional 900 Ontario schools that will offer full-day kindergarten for the 2012-13 school year… “We have enjoyed some very real successes — we have more teachers, smaller classes we have peace and stability and measurable improvements when it comes to results,” [Premier McGuinty] said in an election campaign-type announcement… The Progressive Conservatives say McGuinty can’t reach his goal of all young students in full-day by September 2014 and say a Tory government would look at what Ontario families can afford before agreeing to expand.
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
The school funding debate
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Mar 01 2011
Some suggest fundraising caps as a fix for these trends. Others propose redistributing fundraised dollars across the system, similar to my Toronto Public Library donations that support all libraries, not simply my local branch. Another efficient solution would be to raise adequate revenues through fair taxes where people contribute according to their ability to pay. Then allocate these resources equitably. In fact, we used to have such mechanisms in place. We simply need to support a return to progressive and adequate tax levels to fund the public services we want.
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Rich schools get richer thanks to private cash
Monday, February 28th, 2011
February 28, 2011
Two public and two Catholic high schools in Greater Toronto are bringing in more than a million dollars a year through student fees, private revenue and fundraising, with dozens more each taking in at least half a million dollars. By contrast, other similar-sized schools report a fraction of that — one just $283,000 — raising questions about equity in the public education system. There is an equally great divide for the region’s elementary schools.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
‘Poor school’ a poor idea
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
February 1, 2011
The aim is to attract children who aren’t performing well in the public school system, and provide them with special supports so they can go on to college or university. While that’s a laudable goal, the way they’re going about it smacks of the kind of misguided Victorian do-goodism that sent poor children to the workhouses. Welland MPP Peter Kormos calls the plan “educational apartheid,” and says it won’t address the root causes of poverty… The way to help kids reach the top is to provide them with appropriate supports within the system — not corral them in separate silos, according to race or economic circumstances.
Tags: ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Prof has doubts about the DSBN Academy [for the poor]
Sunday, January 30th, 2011
January 29, 2011
Pathways to Education is focused on reducing the effects of poverty by decreasing high school dropout rates and increasing access to post-secondary education It offers academic, social, financial and advocacy supports to disadvantaged youth in participating communities… “Implementing a program like Pathways would be a much better alternative to a school designed specifically for students from low-income families… I wonder whether schools like this, in the end, will produce the very inequality they were designed to fight…
Tags: ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
Health support for school kids is a mess
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Jan 26 2011
… a sweeping new report prepared for the Ontario government has backed up what parents have been saying for years, namely that the School Health Support Services program is a mess… including growing wait lists, declines in funding and conflicting interpretations of the program’s mandate… The problem is most acute for students who need therapy services. Some students must wait up to 650 days for physiotherapy and 500 days to see a speech-language pathologist… It’s a problem that patients across Ontario have also experienced in seeking either community health care or home care.
Tags: Health, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
Recent Comments