Toronto school fundraising raises questions about equity in public-education system

2014/11/04 1 Comment

Given that one of Canada’s strength in education, as measured by the OECD’s PISA studies, is with respect to equity in education, the funding disparity suggests that this may diminish over time:

Schools in Toronto’s most affluent neighbourhoods are fundraising 300 times more money per student than needier schools, using the cash for field trips and playground renovations and raising questions about equity in the public-education system.

Fundraising figures for elementary schools provided by the Toronto District School Board and analyzed by The Globe and Mail found that children in those affluent neighbourhoods are getting almost as much as $900 each in educational extras, from new playgrounds to Scientists in Schools. The money is raised through events such as fun fairs and pizza lunches. Some schools in lower-income neighbourhoods raise as little as $3 a student.

Canada’s largest school board provides special grants to schools in high-needs communities to help compensate for the vast differences.

But it still cannot catch up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars schools in the city’s richest neighbourhoods raise. Blythwood Junior Public School, situated around Mount Pleasant Road and Lawrence Avenue East, a wealthy neighbourhood, raised almost $700 a student in the 2012-13 academic year. Thorncliffe Park Public School, located in an area that serves as a landing pad for recent immigrants, raised about $45.

The board can’t afford to fully make up the differences, according to Carla Kisko, associate director of the TDSB. “It’s a serious concern because there are significant differences between communities,” she said.

Certainly nothing like the US system, where much of school funding is by neighbourhood in contrast to the block funding in Canada, but still something to watch.

Toronto school fundraising raises questions about equity in public-education system – The Globe and Mail.

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Whether antisemitism or ignorance — it has no place in mayoralty debate | Toronto Star

2014/10/08 Leave a comment

Good commentary by Bernie Farber on Doug Ford’s response to accusations of antisemitism (his brother’s drunken rant) and resorting to the usual “some of my best friends” line rather than a direct apology.

Lovely story about his father:

Sitting there beside the Mayor and listening to Doug Ford open Doug Fords policard I began to wonder if I had somehow managed to crawl into a time-warp. I recalled a conversation my late father had with a customer in his Ottawa grocery store when I was a child back in the 1960s. “You Jews” the customer said to my father without a hint of disdain “you Jews are smart, hell you’re all doctors and lawyers, how did you get so smart?” My Father looked the customer right in the eye replying in his lovely Yiddish accent “can’t tell you, I’m just a simple grocer.”

I never really believed the customer hated Jews. More so he was ignorant of the slur he had uttered. And like that customer, I don’t believe Doug Ford is an antisemite. I simply believe that he holds views which are ignorant and antiquated belonging in a Toronto of the past. Those are not the qualities we are looking for in a Mayor.

Whether antisemitism or ignorance — it has no place in mayoralty debate | Toronto Star.

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Toronto school board sets higher improvement targets for students based on race, sexual orientation

2014/10/07 2 Comments

The value of data to inform educators and support communities and groups that are not doing as well as most:

Cecil Roach is the York board’s superintendent of equity and engagement and a strong champion of collecting data.

“The things that are important are the things we measure, and you need to know who your students are. You cannot fully talk about supporting students unless you’re able to peel back the onion in order to see the inequities.

“You have some folks who say, ‘I don’t want to segregate kids by social identity,’ but that’s ridiculous,” said Roach. “We already know gay kids are more prone to suicide, but a lot of our knowledge is anecdotal. We need to know who our students are.”

York University education professor Carl James is such a believer in the value of gathering student data he has created a network of school board officials from Toronto, Peel, York Region and Ottawa to study the issue.

He would like to see Premier Kathleen Wynne call for a “learning gap strategy” like the one she requested this week to close the wage gap between men and women, and for this, surveys would be key.

“Such data would yield very rich information for the province,” said James, “and I would argue it would be of tremendous social and economic benefit.”

A spokesperson for Education Minister Liz Sandals said Friday her government is committed to have school boards “regularly use high-quality data and ongoing research to measure progress and guide programming,” especially after the scrapping of Ottawa’s long-form census, but “it is too early to tell what that will look like.”

But detailed surveys won’t be easy. A fierce split erupted this spring among Toronto’s Somali parents when the TDSB survey showed Somali students have a 25 per cent dropout rate, 10 points higher than the board average. While some Somali parents welcomed the information and joined a task force to examine solutions, others called it unfair labelling.

“These numbers can lead to uncomfortable conversations, especially about race and also sexual orientation,” admitted Spyropoulos, “but they’re conversations we need to have.”

As I go through the NHS data on educational outcomes, some clear and uncomfortable gaps in outcomes for some communities. Again, the conversations may be uncomfortable but silence and ignorance won’t help improve outcomes.

Toronto school board sets higher improvement targets for students based on race, sexual orientation | Toronto Star.

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Who Votes in Toronto Municipal Elections? – Maytree Study

2014/10/04 Leave a comment

Summary of the results of the Maytree study by Ryerson University Professor Myer Siemiatycki on Toronto municipal voting:

Toronto has a poor record of voter participation in civic elections. In 42 of Toronto’s 44 wards less than half of all eligible voters cast a ballot in recent city elections. The turnout improves only when elections are hotly contested. While areas with lower voter turnout typically have high concentrations of immigrant and visible minority populations, there is minimal correlation between voting and an area’s average income, and no correlation to an area’s proportion of tenants and homeowners.

These are some of the key findings of Who Votes in Toronto Municipal Elections?, the first such study on voter turnout over the past three municipal elections in 2003, 2006 and 2010. Conducted for Maytree by Ryerson University Professor Myer Siemiatycki and geographic analyst Sean Marshall, the study explored the connection between municipal voting behaviour and some of Toronto’s prime demographic characteristics like immigrant status, visible minority identity, income and home ownership.

There is some good news

While the poor turnout is cause for concern, the study shows there is nothing inevitable or pre-determined about who votes in municipal elections. Thorncliffe Park is a prime example of what can be achieved if a more diverse political leadership results in deeper community engagement. With a large concentration of immigrants and visible minorities, this inner city area is one of Toronto’s highest voting neighbourhoods.

Why voter turnout matters

There are many reasons to take the democratic deficit arising out of poor voter turnout seriously. It threatens the legitimacy and confidence of local government and risks local officials being out of touch with public needs and concerns. It can lead to areas or communities within the city being marginalized from public decision-making.

Who Votes in Toronto Municipal Elections?

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Blatchford: Kim-like takeover bid a terrifying twist in the Rob Ford drama

2014/09/15 Leave a comment

Best piece on the Ford family reality show I have read:

Rob Ford, hospitalized with a tumour this week and facing what he admits “could be a battle of my lifetime,” was withdrawing from the mayor’s race. He’s sick and scared, you see; he didn’t say that directly, but that’s what his decision to drop out meant, and fair enough.

But as it turns out, neither he nor anyone else in the family is so sick or so scared that they didn’t didn’t also set in motion the old bait-and-switch, with Rob simultaneously announcing his candidacy for councillor in Ward 2, his home ward, and that he’d asked brother Doug to “finish what we started together,” and that Doug would now carry on in the mayoral race.

Oh, and as well, even as Doug was being registered at the clerk’s office downtown, so was their nephew, Michael Ford, withdrawing as a candidate for the Ward 2 seat to make room for the mayor, and instead throwing his hat into the ring for school trustee in neighbouring Ward 1.

It was as though it was inconceivable that Toronto, like Pyongyang, should manage without a Ford for every citizen. As Kim Jong-un took over as Supreme Leader upon the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, the Eternal General, in 2011, who himself took over the reins of power from his old man, Kim Il-sung, the Great Leader, when he died in 1994, so were the Fords digging deep into their gene pool.

On the tube, no kidding, reporters were soon referring to the press conference Doug Ford would be holding that evening at “Mamma Ford’s house.” They might as well have called Diane Ford “Dear Mother,” you know?

To use a PM Harper word, it would be good for Toronto and the country if this “trifecta” of Fords would be given a time-out by the electorate, although Rob will likely win back his counsellor seat.

Blatchford: Kim-like takeover bid a terrifying twist in the Rob Ford drama.

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Hospitals to query patients on race, sexual orientation

2014/09/10 Leave a comment

Balancing the need for better information to inform care decisions and concerns about people being asked to provide information is always a challenge.

But my bias is towards better information, and the few times that it has come up with my doctors, their line is “nothing is more costly than ignorance.”

More specialized information and linkages than from the Census and NHS:

Marylin Kanee, director of human rights and health equity at Mount Sinai, said properly training staff is key to ensuring patients feel comfortable with the survey and understand the information will be used to improve medical care. Researchers will not be given names of patients. Responses will be aggregated and analyzed to detect differences in health outcomes connected to variables such as race, language and poverty.

“This is information that will help us to tailor the care that we provide to our patients,” Ms. Kanee said. “It will give us information about who are patients are and it will help us to really understand where the inequities are.”

At St. Michael’s Hospital, Fok-Han Leung has experienced the benefits of having greater demographic information at his fingertips. Data collection was tested at the hospital’s family medicine outpatient clinic, with responses gathered on tablets. The information was then instantly linked to a patient’s file.

Seeing a patient’s income, for example, helped inform Dr. Leung’s prescription decisions. In some cases, a shorter medication supply and monitoring the drug’s effectiveness was more prudent than a costly 90-day prescription.

“It can sometimes help with diagnosis, but it very much helps with [care] management,” Dr. Leung said.

Patient participation in Toronto Central’s questionnaire has been strong so far: 85 per cent. At St. Joseph’s, Mike Heenan, vice-president responsible for quality and patient experience, said he’s heard from a few staff opposed to the hospital participating in the project. But he notes 95 per cent of 14,954 presurgery patients have answered the questionnaire, while only eight have registered concerns.

Hospitals to query patients on race, sexual orientation – The Globe and Mail.

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Toronto’s diverse population requires multilingual health care: Goar | Toronto Star

2014/08/12 Leave a comment

Good overview by Carol Goar on an initiative to provide interpretation services in healthcare:

Patients using the service no longer have to bring a relative or friend to medical appointments. They don’t have to disclose sensitive information domestic abuse, mental health issues, sexual problems to their families to get help. They don’t have to impose the burden of being a go-between on young children. And according the Centre for Inner City Health, they believe the quality of the care is better when they can communicate without fear of being misinterpreted by their health-care provider.

Health-care providers have more confidence in the information they are getting from patients. They don’t have to deal with difficult family dynamics. They can involve patients in their own treatment. And they can be sure their instructions are being conveyed to the patient accurately. “It has fundamentally changed who we are able to offer services to,” one health-care provider said.

The researchers did find a few gaps and weaknesses:

  • Elderly patients often don’t like — and won’t use — the technology. The special dial-in code and the delays patching everybody into the conversation frustrate them.
  • The service is inappropriate for people with dementia or paranoia. For them, disembodied voices can be confusing or threatening.
  • It is obviously unsuitable for hard-of-hearing patients.
  • The interpreter’s gender can make some conversations difficult.
  • The cost is a barrier for certain community agencies.
  • And some patients prefer the old method.

On balance, however, the evaluation team gives the program high marks and recommends expansion with a few adjustments.

With the face of urban Canada rapidly changing, it is heartening to see Toronto take the lead in keeping medicare open and equitable.

Toronto’s diverse population requires multilingual health care: Goar | Toronto Star.

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Toronto election is missing a racial equity perspective | Toronto Star

2014/08/05 Leave a comment

The activist perspective on the upcoming Toronto municipal elections:

What’s more, we need leaders who are willing and able to put racial equity at the core of their campaign. This would mean, among other things, supporting employment equity at the city level and having a concrete plan for implementation; committing to inclusionary zoning and the expansion of affordable housing development; embracing the collection, analysis and use of disaggregated data by the city for all of its programs and services, including Toronto Police Services; and pushing for the extension of the municipal franchise to all city residents regardless of their immigration status.

It would indeed be a sorry state of affairs if Torontonians were to cast their ballots on Oct. 27 based solely on which candidate has the fewest skeletons in her or his closet.

As the most diverse city in North America, Toronto desperately needs a leader who can demonstrate true understanding and commitment to the city’s motto, “Diversity Our Strength,” with a plan to promote respect for equality, including an economic platform that is equitable, inclusive and sustainable.

Toronto election is missing a racial equity perspective | Toronto Star.

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Carding drops but proportion of blacks stopped by Toronto police rises

2014/07/28 3 Comments

Likelihood_of_being_stopped_if_you_re_black_increases_halfway_through_2013___Toronto_StarToronto stats on carding (declining) and people stopped (increasing), and the police response. Having the data allows us to ask the appropriate questions; not having data reduced the potential for informed discussion on issues related to socioeconomic factors or biases:

It’s a pattern some police watchers describe as “disturbing” and a sign of “systemic discrimination.”

Toronto police, however, say they are working hard to eliminate prejudice in the force, but that the race of those carded will always be disproportionate because of factors such as socioeconomic disparity.

“This isn’t an exercise in social engineering,” Deputy Chief Peter Sloly said last week when asked why the proportion of black people being carded rose even as carding overall plummeted.

“We go where crime occurs. We go where the community calls us to go. And we go where our own sources of information tell us that crime or other safety issues are occurring.

”While acknowledging there is some element of racial bias in policing, Sloly said “we’re not going to take ownership of all of the social ills that befall us as a 24/7 service provider.”

Carding drops but proportion of blacks stopped by Toronto police rises | Toronto Star.

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Opinions on Rob Ford divide Toronto’s black community | Toronto Star

2014/07/23 Leave a comment

Interesting article on Rob Ford and the black community in Toronto and how his “retail politics” as well as follow-up to specific requests by constituents continues to resonate with some:

[Ken] Bryan, raised in foster homes in some of the city’s most impoverished neighbourhoods, says he “gets” Ford’s support in communities ignored by other politicians unless they are “pandering for votes.”“

Ford shows up and helps someone fix their door that’s been broken for three months and they say, ‘Hey, this guy is a great guy,’” Bryan said. “His sort of populism appeals to that … ‘I’m just this poor little guy and there are these downtown elites who hold their noses up at us; they don’t come into our communities.’”

But Bryan bristles when he hears claims that Ford has done more for black people than any other politician, or that youths, as Ford has said, would be “dead or in jail,” if it weren’t for him and his football charity.

“It’s patently false,” said Bryan, “but he believes it and he says it and the people who don’t know any better believe it. And that’s unfortunate.”

…. Those struggling to eke out a living in Toronto may not have the time, or inclination, to follow the decision-making at city hall closely enough to realize the inconsistencies between Ford’s words and his policy positions, says Bryan.

“It is low information, not necessarily low education,” he said.For that reason, it’s up to those who are paying attention to bring those who feel left out “into the fold,” and get them involved in the political process, Bryan adds.

“The question to be asked is why do all these black people feel disenfranchised? The answer is larger and has to do with a lot more than Rob Ford.”

Opinions on Rob Ford divide Toronto’s black community | Toronto Star.

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