Education and Poverty

Education as a Key to Success: Focusing Learning Opportunities Grants

Education is linked to nearly every positive social outcome. But not all students have an equitable chance for success. Strong public education systems foster societal cohesion and civic engagement. In 1997, a government-appointed expert panel recommended the province provide a Learning Opportunities Grant for elementary and secondary students considered at-risk because of their socio-economic status. These grants were reduced by $132 million in 2007.

While all low-income students need support, racialized students face particular barriers. Many students from racialized and ethnocultural communities experience discrimination and alienation in elementary and secondary schools across Ontario. Further, they have few teachers and other role models from their own communities in the various fields in the education system. Schools with high dropout rates are those with the highest numbers of racialized students. The provincial dropout rate was 25% in 2007, and as high as 40% in some racialized and ethnocultural communities and for aboriginal youth.17

Recommendations

• Designate a new Equity in Education Grant to replace the Learning Opportunities Grant (LOG), which would be used solely for providing programs to mitigate social and economic factors affecting students.

• The new Equity in Education Grant should include a built-in accountability process mandating that school boards report on the programs and services funded by the grant, including data disaggregated ethno-racially and socio-economically, and on the programs’ effectiveness at redressing racialized and other learning outcome inequities.

• While the Equity in Education Grant is being developed, the province should reinstate the $132 million cut from Learning Opportunities Grant in 2007.

from " A Blueprint for Economic Stimulus and Poverty Reduction " Feb 2009  put together by the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction