McGuinty Must Stop Rural
School Closures
03 June, 2008
Jim Wilson, MPP
The Progressive Conservative Caucus is putting rural school closures at
the top of the legislative agenda this week through the introduction and
debate of a motion calling upon Premier McGuinty to suspend any and all
board-recommended rural school closures. It is our belief that the
government's promised funding formula review and an assessment of
alternative uses for rural schools should be completed first.
Our initiative comes on the heels of research indicating that 37 of 72
school boards in Ontario are currently undertaking accommodation reviews
involving more than 300 schools and affecting over 100,000 students.
In Simcoe-Grey the story is just as bleak. Currently, there are six
schools undergoing an accommodation review, which is essentially,
depending how you look at it, the final step before a school is allowed to
close. Among those are Elmvale District High School, Stayner Collegiate
Institute, Alliston Union Public School and Our Lady of Assumption in New
Lowell to name just a few.
The list does not include facilities like Duntroon Central Public School
that always seem to come perilously close to closure. In fact, Duntroon is
one school I fought very hard to keep open back in the mid-1990s. When the
Board wanted to close Nottawa Elementary and bus the students to either
Duntroon or Collingwood, I joined the fight and we won a brand new school
for Nottawa. The same goes for Admiral Collingwood. It was supposed to
close leaving Collingwood with only 3 schools until we fought to have it
replaced, which it was.
Schools are often the heart of rural communities. As Dalton McGuinty said
in 2002, "If a rural community loses a school, it's not the same as
shutting one down in downtown Toronto where there's another one six blocks
away. What you're doing is robbing the community of an important
component. It's the heart and soul of a community. If you don't have a
school it's really tough to attract and to hold on to young families." I
agree, which makes me wonder why years later he is so bent on stealing the
heart and soul right out of Stayner, Elmvale and New Lowell, among others.
The fact is Mr. McGuinty has lied. During the last election, on September
18th, Mr. McGuinty walked up to a podium at Newburgh Public School outside
of Kingston and said, "Rural schools help keep communities strong, which
is why we're not only committed to keeping them open - but strengthening
them." Keep in mind he said that after being Premier for 4 years and
having had years to review all of the data on finances and enrollment. At
the end of the day, his election proclamation was nothing but a lie and
worst of all, he knew it as he enunciated it.
So this week I am going to speak in support of my party's resolution to
suspend school closures and I am going to talk passionately about the
importance of keeping our own local schools open. Unlike Mr. McGuinty, I
mean it.
For more information on the debate to stop rural school closures please
visit my website at www.jimwilsonmpp.com. |
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