Ontario's Liberal government won't prevent Canada's largest school board from establishing a controversial new black-focused school – a position critics say flies in the face of the party's much-touted opposition to funding religious schools, which helped propel it to victory in the last election.And who's gonna pay the freight on this baby?
Implementing the adopted recommendations to combat high dropout rates among black students, which includes the proposed black-focused school, is expected to cost the school board about $850,000, which McGuinty insists the province will not provide.**********
But he wouldn't say whether that means the province won't bail out the cash-strapped school board at the end of the year, as it has in the past.
"The point I'm making today is that we're not going to be providing any additional funding for this particular new policy," McGuinty said.
Board officials, who are projecting a $41-million deficit, have said they will find the money for the school in their $2.3-billion budget.
RELATED: And we're not just talkin' voodoo economics
To a cynical media wondering how this will miraculously solve an astounding 40% dropout rate among Toronto's black teens, Connelly could offer no compelling details of how this "bold, innovative" strategy will work -- at least not yet.
Instead, in what seems like a decidedly backwards approach to the problem, the trustees have narrowly voted to build it and then figure out if they will come -- and if it works.
"Does this mean that when a graduate from these schools enters the workforce they will seek employment in a black-only company, live in a black-only community, surround themselves with black-only friends, and absorb themselves in a black-only culture?"
