BLACK-FOCUSED SCHOOL GOES AHEAD IN TORONTO
 
(The following article is from the February 16-29, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3).

PV Ontario Bureau

After more than a year of debate, discussion and pressure from Black parents, the Toronto District School Board has voted to open an Africentric Alternative School in the fall of 2009. 

     Like many of the TDSB's other Alternative school programs, the Black-focused school will be housed inside a regular school building and will be open to all TDSB students. It will teach to the Ontario government's standard curriculum, giving particular focus to Black history and experience in Canada and globally.

     The school has been fought for by Black parents and others deeply concerned that 40% of Black students do not graduate from high school. They argue that Black students have become alienated from the school system as a result of systemic racism, a Eurocentric curriculum that is devoid of Black history and experience, and the zero tolerance policies and funding cuts that fuelled drop out rates for a generation. Emergency action, they say, is called for to reverse the situation.

     But there is also concern in the Black community that the school could become a lightning rod for racism, opening a debate about segregation; or that the fight against systemic racism could be limited to a debate on education.

     In fact, Premier Dalton McGuinty immediately waded into the issue, refusing to fund the school. He called on public school supporters to pressure the TDSB to reverse itself, labelling the school "segregation" and equated the plan to the funding of religious schools proposed by the Tories and defeated in the 2007 provincial election campaign. 

     Liberal school trustee Josh Mattlow immediately demanded a special meeting and a vote to reconsider. Picking up on the segregation charge, Mattlow accused the Board of putting itself into deficit with the estimated $800,000 cost of the new program, and demanded the Board open its books to show what existing programs would be cut to balance the budget.

     The sensational and divisive charges were left hanging as none of the other 21 Trustees supported Mattlow's call to reconsider the vote. The issue is not over, however, as the School Board will have to pass implementing motions later this spring on curricula, staffing, and other specifics of the school. 

     Since the Board's vote at the end of January, a growing list of organizations has endorsed its decision. Among them are the Jane-Finch Concerned Citizens, the Jamaican-Canadian Association, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, African Canadian Heritage Association, the Canadian Alliance of Black Educators, the Ontario Parents of Black Children, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Black Action Defence League, the Canadian Arab Federation, and the Communist Party of Canada (Ontario). 

     Communist Party leader Liz Rowley said the Ontario Executive had decided a year ago after consultations with activists in the Party and community, to support the concept of a Black-focused school. 

     "We recognize that a single school in Toronto will not end systemic racism, but is it a step in the right direction? Will it help some students succeed? Is it something that the community wants? Well, the answer is yes," said Rowley. "An alternative Black-focused school, housed in a regular school, open to all students and qualified staff, with a curriculum that meets provincial requirements, and that also includes a focus on Black history, culture, and experience is valuable and will undoubtedly help some students succeed. The Board was quite right to establish the school. This is not about segregation, it's about choice and providing students and their families alternative ways to succeed in school.

     "Is this the only thing the School Board should be required to do to address the needs of Black students and other students of Colour? No, it isn't. The Toronto School Board, and school boards across the province need to address systemic racism in schools and in society, with a range of actions including overhauling curricula and textbooks in every course to eliminate racial and other stereotyping, and to include Black, Aboriginal, women's, and labour history and experience. 

     "There must be real progress in employment equity so that staff in school boards are much more inclusive and reflective of the students they serve from elementary to high school (and beyond). There have to be more people of colour, more women and more Aboriginals teaching, supervising and in school administrations. 

     "Zero tolerance policies and their vestiges, including pushing students out of school in order to keep school test scores high, must be eliminated. Students must be encouraged to stay in school, and the program and staffing supports have to be put in place to do this.

     "This means substantially increased public investment in public education, and a new funding formula based on student needs - a promise the Liberals made in 2003 and again in 2007, but which has now been put off until 2010. At the end of the day, the Liberals are failing all students in the province, and Black and Aboriginal students in the very first place.

     "We also have to point out that it's not the school system, but capitalism that's the source of racism, which permeates our entire society. The alienation, exploitation and violence of racism are daily reality for a majority of young people in Toronto, who today are not white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants or their descendants. Police violence, racial profiling, harassment; violence, racism and stereotyping in the media; and the grind of discriminatory hiring and housing policies, immigration and refugee policies, low wages, poverty, and insecurity - this is the reality of life in Canada, this is capitalism in Canada.

     "Supporting the establishment of a Black-focused school in Toronto does not eliminate the fight to eradicate racism on all fronts. It's one among many points of engagement in the struggle for full and complete equality."


Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint12/02_BLACK-FOCUSED_SCHOOL_GOES_AHEAD_IN_TORONTO.html