On Wedenesday night, the trustees of the Toronto District School Board decided to shelve cuts to music programmes that had been planned for the next school year.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
As part of a much broader cost-saving exercise, trustees had to vote on saving $2 million a year by reducing the number of itinerant music instructors — specialists who move from school to school every week to provide leadership and instruction for string players, bands and steel pan ensembles.
At least two major petitions, the most recent one containing more than 10,000 signatures, were presented to the trustees. High profile artists and arts advocates mobilized support beginning about a week before the itinerant music instructors were served notice earlier this spring that their positions may be cut.
Wednesday night’s vote to maintain music instruction at 2012-13 levels is a significant victory — but not a permanent one.
The Toronto District School Board continues to operate in the red. Staff positions are not being replaced, and building maintenance has been kept at a strict minimum ever since the board’s funding was moved from City of Toronto education tax revenues to a provincial funding formula instituted by the Mike Harris government in the late 1990s.
That funding formula was designed to equalize the resources of wealthy school boards, like Toronto’s, with less well-off districts.
The Toronto District School Board almost immediately started running deficit budgets, citing inadequate support from the new provincial funding formula. Things came to a head when the trustees refused to present the province with a proposed budget for 2002-03.
The province undertook a study of the situation. The resulting report concluded that the board was mismanaged, with too much money being spent on out-of-classroom expenses.
The province took over the board for a while, but more than a decade later, the deficits are still huge, the schools are still crumbling, parents are having to raise ever more money for their kids’ activities, and the fate of music programmes remains precarious.
It’s a lot easier to cut a few hours of music instruction than it is to renegotiate maintenance and repair contracts.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
