The Local: How Decades of Underfunding Eroded Toronto’s Schools

Illustration by Maggie Prince / The Local

(Via The Local) – Colleen Russell-Rawlins gently folded her arms and rested them on the table in front of her as she addressed the trustees of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) one evening this June. In one of her last finance committee meetings as the board’s director of education before retiring in November, she described what she believed public education in the city could look like.

With needed investments, the TDSB, the province’s largest school board, could rebuild after the COVID pandemic and maintain its status as a world-class public education system, she said in a calm, even voice. It could offer literacy support for students ages 4 to 18, special education to ensure all students fulfil their potential, cleaner schools, improved arts programs, sports, and business projects.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to, every five to seven years, have a regeneration project in each of our schools?” she mused.

There could be child and youth workers, counsellors, social workers, or learning coaches in every school that needed one, she continued. And the board could have an innovation centre that would serve as an incubator or test lab for new ideas that could revolutionize teaching and learning.

“As your primary educator, as the director of education, that’s the vision I want you to be able to realize,” she said. “It is the vision that our children, and our families, and our staff deserve.”