TDSB wants ‘new deal’
School board warns $26.5-million deficit will ‘jeopardize’ programming
The Toronto District School Board wants a “new deal” with the province as it grapples with a $26.5 million deficit for the next school year, warning that “funding shortfalls” will “jeopardize” student and community programming.
At a media conference on Wednesday, board Chair Rachel Chernos Lin said the TDSB is facing a “significant” structural deficit — this means the board spends more than it receives in funding — “despite identifying and implementing so many operational efficiencies over the years.”
“We have some very difficult decisions to make in the weeks ahead,” she said of the budget process, as trustees consider options to balance the 2024-25 operating budget.
Without more funding, the TDSB may increase permit fees for community groups that provide kids with mentorship opportunities and sports programming at reasonable costs; eliminate general interest and seniors’ daytime programming known as Learn4Life, which is a “lifeline” for many ; and reduce the number of sites where international language programs are offered and move the programming to evenings, which many families don’t want.
Flanked by trustees and community members, Chernos Lin said that since 2019, the TDSB has approved $64.7 million in reductions and, earlier this month the trustees approved an additional reduction of $17 million.
“This challenge of doing this over and over again, slowly chipping away, year after year … The fat is gone. We’re really trim,” she said. “I’m open to creative solutions and working with the ministry.”
Speaking earlier in the day at Queen’s Park, Education Minister Stephen Lecce told reporters that the province has given school boards “billions of dollars more” in funding in recent years. And since 2018, the government has hired 7,500 additional teachers and education workers and increased mental health funding by more than 550 per cent.
“We expect school boards to balance their budgets and put students’ academic achievement as the foremost priority,” he told reporters. “(The TDSB) … needs to exercise leadership and actually get back to the basics of education.”
Here’s what the TDSB says is underfunded
■ Since 2019, enrolment has declined by 9,300 students and the ministry has provided $130 million in extra funds. The increase in perpupil funding is about 8.5 per cent, but inflation over the same period was 13.8 per cent.
■ In part, the TDSB has a structural deficit because rates for statutory benefits — Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance — have risen in the past six years without a corresponding increase in funding. Underfunding for these benefits in 2024-2025 will be $35.2 million.
■ There’s a gap in funding teacher salaries. In 2014, the province began central bargaining with teacher unions and came up with a central teacher grid to fund salaries. But, at the time, the TDSB grid was higher.
And, the difference between what TDSB teachers make and what the province funds increases annually and the board must cover the gap.
In 2023-2024, the unfunded amount was $22.3 million.
Here is what the education ministry says
■ The TDSB has $150 million in proceeds of disposition — money received from the sale of its property — and $20 billion in assets under the control of Toronto Lands Corp.
■ The board hasn’t used all of its renewal maintenance funding, meant for school repairs, and instead has carried funds forward from year to year.
■ At the end of the 2022-23 school year, it had $315 million in unused renewal maintenance funding. And, an extra $300 million in these funds was provided for the 2023-24 school year.
■ In 2018, there were 3,337 TDSB staff on the Sunshine List — public servants earning more than $100,000 — that cost taxpayers nearly $370 million.
In 2023, there were 8,826 TDSB staff on the list, costing nearly over $935 million.