A Message From Education Action: Toronto

July 7, 2010

A Story of Two Trustees and An Approach to Schools as Community Hubs

Dear Friends,

Before we take a summer break, we want to send you two items that bring together again the coalition we saw building at the June 23 protest at the Toronto District School Board.

From Queen's Plate Drive:
A Defense of Bruce Davis against an Attack by John Hastings

The first item is a letter from the Queen's Plate Drive Parents and Community defending Board Chair Bruce Davis against a lengthy attack by their local trustee, John Hastings, at a Board meeting on June 30. Hastings wanted to stop Davis, who had listened to a special plea from this parents' group, from putting the loss of the Queen's Plate Drive neighbourhood school on to the agenda of a full meeting of the Board. As it turned out, a technicality prevented Davis' notice of motion (which is included in the Queen's Plate Drive document) from being debated, and the Board meeting ended before other trustees could respond to Hastings or even figure out what he was talking about.

The Queen's Plate Drive letter fully exonerates Davis, who acted not only with decency and compassion, but very much in the spirit of a Chair who is looking out for the best interests of the entire Board. Because what the Queen's Plate Drive letter reminds us is that this issue is not just about losing a specific neighbourhood school, it also raises a very serious human rights question, which will continue to haunt the TDSB until it is resolved. A number of trustees have now responded sympathetically to the Queen's Plate Drive situation. Hopefully, when Trustee Davis' motion reappears at the next Board meeting, on September 7, they will find a way to give these parents and their children the justice they deserve.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE LETTER TO
TDSB FROM QUEEN'S PLATE DRIVE PARENTS AND COMMUNITY.


Taking on the Issue of Community Hubs

The second item is a recently published book, The School As Community Hub, which the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has kindly allowed us to distribute to you. Public donations and subscriptions to the CCPA are essential if the organization is to continue to provide this kind of research support - not only in education, but over a wide spectrum of political, economic and cultural issues. You can reach the CCPA at 205-75 Albert Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5E7, email: ccpa@policy alternatives.ca, website: www.policyalternatives.ca, phone: 613-563-1341. We strongly encourage you to take out a subscription (which includes a great magazine called The Monitor) and to send along $10 for the book, if you can afford it and find it useful.

The School as Community Hub looks at the return of the idea of community schools and what it means in practice during the current neo-liberal ascendancy. There are a number of dangers in this idea, especially in its potential for "rationalization" and privatization of school services. God knows, for example, what Chris Spence or George Smitherman have in mind when the time for rhetoric ends and implementation of "full service schools" hits the ground. But, as the book points out, there is also room for optimism in running with this concept. In the struggle for schools as genuine community hubs, we get a chance to rethink our schools as democratic institutions, uniting engaged and purposeful learning with community development.

In Part I of the School as Community Hub, David Clandfield sets out this idea as an "alternative to the neo-liberal threat to Ontario schools." Following a rich description of what school-community hubs could be in this province, Clandfield concludes with a section entitled "Who's in Charge and Who's Paying?" He offers us a major rethinking of key issues of governance and finance in Ontario education. He hopes you'll get back to him with your comments and critique.

Those of you who are concerned about Premier McGuinty's Educational Summit this coming September might want to read over Richard Hatcher's article in this book on recent developments in the English school system. These developments were originally engineered by Michael Barber and roundly supported by Michael Fullan - two of McGuinty's key summiteers. Believe us when we say the current levels of privatization and destruction of local democracy in English education will make your blood run cold.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCHOOL AS COMMUNITY HUB (COVER),
AND HERE TO READ THE SCHOOL AS COMMUNITY HUB


Alongside this struggle for community in education, we face widespread closures of neighbourhood schools as part of the continuing financial cutbacks in public education. The June 23 protest at the TDSB made that point very clearly. As the book argues, "the good news - if we can organize around it - is that there is now a practical, democratic alternative to closing schools: the school as community hub. Our job is to shape it in the service of education in schools that are there for all of us."

We hope all of you will bring this issue to the forefront of our upcoming trustee elections on October 25.

In solidarity,

George Martell and Faduma Mohamed
Co-chairs Education Action: Toronto

This email was sent by Education Action: Toronto
1698 Gerrard St. East,
Toronto, On. M4L 2B2