Toronto's enrolment decline smaller than expected
October 30, 2009
Louise Brown
EDUCATION REPORTER
The shaky economy may be keeping Toronto families from moving to the 905, say officials at city schools, which have signed up nearly 3,000 more children this fall than expected, despite declining enrolment.
While the Toronto District School Board still has lost about 1,500 students, that’s 1,800 fewer than it had been bracing for, with a surge in Grades 4 to 8, new figures show.
Likewise, Toronto’s Catholic schools have registered 800 more elementary students than expected, and officials at both boards say they suspect many Toronto families are postponing their moves to the GTA to buy a home.
“We typically lose a lot of students to the 905 - many are educated new Canadian families who can afford to buy a nice big house - but the economy may have slowed that down,” said Angelo Sangiorgio, associate director of planning for the Toronto Catholic District School Board.
Similarly, the public board sees students “migrate each year to the 905, but with people uncertain about their jobs, they might not have enough money to buy a house in the 905,” said Don Higgins, the TDSB’s executive officer of business services.
Too, Higgins said there could be “some pickup from the private schools,” with fewer families perhaps prepared to pay for private schools in a recession, and some families switching back to public schools for the same reason.
TDSB trustee Bruce Davis said the extra students spell an extra $3.6 million in funding for the board, and he suggests $1.5 million of this could be earmarked for proposals from new director of education Chris Spence, from more boy-friendly learning and an all-boys school to hiring a marketing director to recruit more students from around the world.