York Board Plans To Charge For Tutoring
Posted January 22, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Your kids need help in class and their teacher offers to keep them for a few minutes after school to give them a review.
They bring home an “A” – and a bill for $190.
It’s a scenario that’s supposed to be unthinkable in the Ontario public school system. But it’s an apparent reality in York Region.
The Board of Education there is charging parents whose kids need extra tutoring, in a service called “The Learning Advantage.”
And that idea has angered many taxpayers.
“I think it should be offered to the parents,” contends Pam McLellan. “I think that they need it and it benefits the kids down the road.”
Longtime education activist Annie Kidder is extremely concerned about the precedent the move appears to set.
“I think it flies in the face of the kind of fundamental premise of public education that every child should have an equal chance to succeed,” she fumes.
The lessons are for those in grades 4, 5 and 6, and run about two hours a day for eight weeks.
At $190 total, it equals out to around $11.87 an hour, far less than what a private tutoring service would cost.
But critics remind those other places are voluntary – and we don’t pay for them in taxes.
York Board spokesperson L ucia Cascioli maintains they have it all wrong. She insists subsidies are available for families that can’t afford the fees and no one is being shut out.
“This was the response to parents who wanted something that was aligned with the Ontario curriculum,” she defends. “For those parents who wanted something above and beyond.”
She notes struggling students will still be able to get help from teachers at no charge, but that these extra sessions are simply for those looking for a leg up.
But it’s a lesson many seem reluctant to learn.
Sign up for a del.icio.us account here to save your bookmarks for free online.
