New
Funding to Restore
Community Use of Schools
New Funding to Restore Community Use of Schools
The McGuinty government has announced $20 million of annual funding to ensure Ontario schools will once again be accessible for community use at nominal fees. This new funding will address a problem created by the education funding formula introduced by the former government, which excluded the cost of community use and forced many School Boards to dramatically increase user fees.
A study done jointly by the City of Toronto and United Way of Greater Toronto found a 43% drop in the number of groups using school space between 2000 and 2002. It also revealed that volunteers were increasingly required to spend a disproportionate amount of their time fundraising, rather than coaching, mentoring or providing services.
According to provincial data, Ontario’s School Boards collected $29 million in user fees during 2003. The provincial funding is designed to compensate Boards for the lost user fee revenue that they would have collected, if they had been charging higher fees rather than nominal fees. In order to obtain provincial community use funding, School Boards will be required to enter into an agreement with the province obliging them to charge only nominal fees.
In making the announcement Education Minister Gerard Kennedy said, “we want to help schools return to their rightful, traditional role as community hubs”. Tourism and Recreation Minister Jim Bradley said, “reconnecting our school gyms and fields to neighbourhood non-profit groups is another step in making our communities more vital places, where people can enjoy a healthier, higher quality of life.”
For more information, please visit: http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2004/07/09/c1858.html?lmatch=&lang=_e.html
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Source: United Ways of Ontario's Government Relations Bulletin - Issue dd July 23, 2004
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Page last updated July 24, 2004