Schools threatened with closure due to dropping enrolment should be repurposed for community use, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Saturday as she promised millions to revamp aging and under-utilized facilities.
A New Democrat government would earmark $60 million annually to renovate schools on the chopping block so that non-profit and community groups can take advantage of the space, Horwath said.
WHERE THE LEADERS ARE:
WYNNE: Taking day off
HUDAK:
- 1:00pm - Doug Holyday Campaign BBQ 58 Marine Parade Dr. Toronto, ON Photo Opportunity
HORWATH:
- 7:30 am - Queen's Park, Main Legislative Building
- 11:00 am - Making a campaign stop in Kingston With: Mary Rita Holland, NDP candidate for Kingston and the Islands Agnes Etherington Art Centre
- 2:30 pm - in Peterborough With: Sheila Wood, NDP candidate for Peterborough at the The Whistle Stop Café,
- 3:30 pm - attending Area 705 Roller Derby season opener With: Sheila Wood, NDP candidate at the Douro Community Centr
The program would protect schools "at the heart of our communities" and ensure access to affordable after-school and weekend activities, she said, adding school boards could apply for funding starting in 2016.
"People have already paid for that infrastructure. They've paid for those facilities to exist. They've become the fabric, frankly, of communities," Horwath said.
"Both (Progressive) Conservatives and Liberals have left school boards with no choices but to shut down schools and tear them out of the communities and people have been telling me across this province that that's not what they want to see."
The plan is meant as an "interim measure" while the party reviews the province's education system, which Horwath said is "set up to fail" the communities it serves. She would not, however, commit to revisiting the formula used to parcel out funding between school boards.
Some 125 schools were facing or recommended for closure between 2012 and next year, while another 142 are under review, the NDP said.
A recent report by the Ministry of Education found enrolment was declining in 53 of the province's 72 school boards, and pointed to sharing space as a possible strategy to use infrastructure more efficiently.
NDP plan 'pales in comparison'
The Liberals have not yet released an education policy but Education Minister Liz Sandals said the NDP proposal "pales in comparison" to the investments laid out in the party's spring budget.
She accused Horwath in a statement of putting "her own political interests first" by opposing the budget, which included $11 billion to build or repair schools.
'We have to cost this out. It isn't a limitless budget...We can't continue to spend beyond our means.'- PC Deputy Leader Christine Elliott
The Tories, meanwhile, have vowed to eliminate 9,700 "non-teaching positions," increase class sizes — which could mean laying off teachers — and reduce the number of early childhood educators in full-day kindergarten classes as part of their effort to balance the books.
Deputy leader Christine Elliott questioned the feasibility of the NDP plan at a campaign stop in Whitby, east of Toronto.
"What we need to do is make sure that we can afford all of these things. We have to cost this out. It isn't a limitless budget," she said.
"We have costed out our plan. We know that it's affordable. We can't continue to spend beyond our means. We need to get our debt and our deficit under control before we spend more money."
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