They serve nearly two-thirds of all students in Ontario — 1.3 million children, nearly half of them newcomers, many of them poor and struggling to learn.
Yet big-city schools lack the funding and help to play the role they could in fighting poverty and crime and bolstering neighbourhoods and racial harmony, says a discussion paper released today by the advocacy group People For Education.
In a sweeping research document on urban and suburban schools compiled with input from more than a dozen social agencies, the group calls for a government plan to make city schools the gateway to improving life in this province.
Yet Education Minister Kathleen Wynne said there is a more useful exercise than comparing funding between urban and rural schools.
“Are the programs that kids need being put in place? That’s the question that I ask of the system,” said Wynne.
