LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO
Monday 12 December 2005

RURAL STUDENT SUCCESS PROGRAM

Mr. Toby Barrett (Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant): To the Minister of Education: For two and a half years, various citizens groups, coalitions across the province, have been writing letters to you as education minister, pleading with you to keep high schools open. The question remains, is this all for naught? There are 144 rural high schools across Ontario. This course program helps 25 or so high schools. The question remains, what about the others? What about those schools that are threatened with closure? I sincerely hope they will remain open in the future.

I will say, however, I am pleased to see there is a promise here -- I hope it's more than a promise -- for a farming and a rural major in high school. I used to teach high school agriculture and that course in the province of Ontario was eliminated 30 or 35 years ago. I do hope you keep your promise and bring back high school agriculture.

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You know, this Ontario government continues with periodic announcements and promises of support for rural schools, but when it comes to action, the Minister of Education has yet to step up to the plate. We're still waiting for the long-promised funding formula, the changes, for our rural schools; we're still wondering when the school closure moratorium will have some teeth; and we're still looking for some hard details on that $20-million announcement. What school has reached that funding? What board has achieved that funding? In my riding, for example, Communities Advocating Rural Education, a member of the Coalition for Small Schools, has been questioning the continued waiting game faced by our rural schools. They've put this in writing, and they would like to see a transfer of funds directly to boards and to schools.