Every parent has seen that sign on a construction fence, warning them that due to resident growth their local school could be too full to accommodate their child.
We are a rapidly growing city. Without additional revenue, our school system will not be ready to educate the 30,000 additional children that are expected to enroll in the TDSB. New construction is highly concentrated in areas of the city that do not have the services and school capacity available to meet the needs of current and new families moving into the area, and this problem is set to get worse. University-Rosedale, Spadina-Fort York, and the Eglinton-Yonge area have been identified by the TDSB as areas experiencing overcrowding. Whitney School in particular is over-capacity.
Other school boards in Ontario have the right to collect developer fees for new schools, and it’s time for the Conservatives to give the Toronto District School Board access to that funding stream as well. In June, I introduced a motion to call on the Conservatives to do exactly that to ensure developers pay their fair share to Toronto schools.
You can support my motion below.