Education Funding Task Force

Education Funding Task Force
At the ONDP Convention in March 2009, a resolution was passed that mandated the party to establish a Task Force on Education Funding in Ontario (see below for resolution) that would consult with party members on this critical issue.

The Task Force was established, and its membership approved, at the November 2009 Provincial Council meeting. The membership is as follows: Vicky Smallman (co-chair), Bud Wildman (co-chair), Cameron Holmstrom, Pat Chastang, Malcolm Buchanan, Ed Chudak, Effie Vlachoyannacos, Brian MacDonald (staff), Sandra Clifford (ex-officio)

Mandate of Task Force
• The mandate as set out in the convention resolution is to deal with education funding in the
broad sense.
• Submissions may deal with legal, constitutional, political, fiscal, equity, taxation,
and governance issues.

Framework and Timelines
• This is a task force of the party and will seek submissions from party members, on the
assumption that outside interested groups will be represented through the party membership.
• Submissions will be accepted by mail, e-mail, and video, and there will be one in-person session
Sunday, February 28 between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm at the venue of the Provincial Council
meeting. Time-slots for in-person submissions must be booked in advance, and the in-person
presentations must be accompanied by a written submission. All submissions must include name,
address, phone and e-mail information. Submissions will be accepted until March 19, 2010.
All submissions and requests for time at the in-person session are to be sent to:

Valorie Block
Executive Assistant to the Provincial Secretary, Ontario NDP
101 Richmond Street East
Toronto, ON M5C 1N9
p: 416.591.8637 ext. 244
f: 416.599.4820
vblock@on.ndp.ca

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CONVENTION 2009 RESOLUTION
3-6 Public Education Funding
Whereas Ontario currently has four publicly-funded school board systems, a French Catholic, a
French Public, an English Catholic and an English Public; and
Whereas schools in all board systems currently lack adequate funding due to a flawed
provincial funding formula that the McGuinty government has refused to fix despite promising
to do so; and
Whereas all proponents of public education should be unified in the fight for excellent schools
that have the funding they need; and
Whereas the forced merger at this time of some or all of these school board systems will only
serve to divert attention away from the real problems facing public education in Ontario;

Therefore be it resolved that New Democrats oppose the McGuinty government's continued
and chronic under-funding of schools in Ontario's four publicly-funded school board systems;
and
Be it further resolved that New Democrats continue to support Ontario's four publicly-funded
board systems at this time and oppose any efforts to forcibly amalgamate them.
Be it further resolved that Provincial Council establish a Party task force to examine all public
education funding options in Ontario and that that task force report back to Provincial Council
within a year of this convention.