Better Farming February 2017

The Business of

Ontario Agriculture

Better Farming

February 2017

RURAL

SCHOOL

CLOSURES

1941 – Ontario population: 3,700,000.

1948 – Ontario had 6,800 elementary schools, including

4,400 with one classroom and single teacher.

There were 239 high schools, 114 continuation

schools and 60 vocational schools.

1950 – 40 per cent of schools lacked inside toilet

facilities; a third of rural public schools and half

of separate schools lacked hydro.

1961 – Ontario fertility rate of four children per woman

almost doubled from the 1936 rate of 2.2.

1964 – Ontario Education Minister William Davis

eliminated historic, single school boards,

declaring townships the administrative unit for

public schools in rural areas.

1968 – Limited French-language education rights

established.

1969 – During county board consolidation, counties

became the basic school administration unit

despite widespread protests. Education costs

became an explosive political issue.

1969 – Education Act amendments allowed the

province to impose school board spending

limits.

1970 – Ontario Federation of Agriculture proposed

farm tax strike over education issues.

1971 – Ontario population: 7,600,000.

1985 – Full public funding for Catholic separate school

system.

1985-90 – Separate school enrolments rose from 63,000

to 171,000 as public school enrolments

declined.

1986 – Full French-language education rights

established.

1995 – Premier Mike Harris’s Common Sense Revolution

proposed a $400 million school funding cut.

1997 – Education Act revisions introduced provincial

control of all education revenue, including

provincial grants and local property tax levies,

while cutting total number of school boards in

half.

1999 – High school program reduced from five to four

years.

2002 – Ontario Ministry of Education actual budgets,

2002-03 school year: operating, $14.399 billion;

capital, $670.8 million. Average daily enrol-

ment, 1.997 million students. Student transpor-

tation grant, $629.267 million. Average utiliza-

tion of facilities, 85.7 per cent.

2016 – Ontario Ministry of Education projections for the

2016-17 school year: operating, $22.864 billion;

capital, $1.493 billion. 3,980 elementary and

927 secondary schools; average daily enrol-

ment, 1.952 million students. Student transpor-

tation grant, $896.6 million. Average utilization

of facilities, 78.6 per cent.

2016 – Ontario population 13.983 million, 14.9 per

cent in rural areas and 85.1 per cent in urban

areas.

A short history of Ontario schools consolidation

Sources: R.D. Gidney, From Hope to Harris: The Reshaping of Ontario’s Schools Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999; Ontario Ministry of Education website; and Ontario Ministry of Finance website.