Please contact all TDSB school trustees and express your support for our city’s black students and your opposition to dividing Toronto’s public schools by race.

A special Program and School Services Committee (PSSC) has been set for January 29, 2008 at 6 p.m. to discuss the Africentric school issue. The public board meeting (when this item will be debated and decided on) will be held at 7pm on January 30th. Both meetings will be held at 5050 Yonge Street.

All persons wishing to speak to the issue must register as delegations prior to the special committee meeting by contacting Board Services at: david.tomczak@tdsb.on.ca.

You can send an email to all Toronto District School Board Trustees c/o David Tomczak (clerk):
david.tomczak@tdsb.on.ca

Please send me a copy of your email(s) for my records (josh@joshmatlow.ca)

I have noticed that so far no articles on Afrocentric Alternative schools have addressed the fairness of the extra costs involved, while the extra costs were continuously cited in regard to funding faith based schools.

Despite the fact that due to changing demographics its student enrollment shrinks 9% every 5 years, which is a trend that is expected to continue, the Toronto District School Board continuously has difficulty staying within its budget, and taxpayers can expect no relief. The base allocation budgeted for students is $5,000 per elementary student, and $10,000 per secondary student, and the school board further supplements that base amount by providing $5,000 per alternative student, and has introduced a graduated small-school supplement of between $1,500 to $5,000 for schools with enrollments of 300 or less. By creating small specialized alternative schools the Toronto District School Board is actually trying to justify rewarding itself more funds for handling a shrinking number of students.

Although I understand why black parents want so much more money spent on educating their children, I am sure they would be the first to cry racism if they were targeted for tax increases in order to cover the costs, and since property taxes are calculated at a much higher rate for rental units in Toronto, many of the poor must actually carry a higher burden for the cost of education. Further, rural students have a school drop out rate similar to blacks, how is it fair that so much less money will be spent on them?

The main thing though is to be taught by black people who will not mistreat students…to have black guidance counselors that will not sell student short on what their future is….to have black male teachers present to serve as role models for young males who need this alternative school the most.

I personally think the best part is the black staff getting across to the kids what they need to know.

While this is being tested, I would love to see recruitment of black teachers from everywhere (immigration) to feed the regular school board. Also, the recruitment of black counselors and principals. I want enough black staff in schools that none of the other staff things they can get away with misguiding or mistreating black students without their colleagues finding out. I want them to interact with black people in their profession that will not let them sit in lunch rooms and fill each others heads with idiotic stereotypes about “all black people” and assuming that success stories are “exceptions to the rule”.

As someone who made it through the system I know how damn alienating it can be…and unfortunately my future kids probably will too since no one gives a damn about fixing the system as it is….but I would like to know that if one of my kids is really at risk and not adjusting to the system…there is an alternative that they could use even if its temporary to get them back on track.

There is no reason for people to jump on this idea when there is even a school for kids who are normal but whose parents are gay. There is no comparison between this and the idea of separate school systems for the various religions. If it does not work then its back to the drawing board, but I say let the community try it since people so often run their mouth about how the community does not come with its own solutions.

However, I’m seeing too many opinions and not enough factual research for or against the Toronto District School Board’s proposal for Afro-centric schools.

The idea isn’t new. Its been tried in the United States. So the business case for the proposal should clearly articulate the problem; evidence of success achieved elsewhere; and any problems or pitfalls encountered.

As a taxpayer, I’m willing to support any plausible and feasible initiative to reduce the school drop-out rate for any race of disadvantaged kids.