Parents from across Ontario headed to Queen’s Park today to protest how the government funds rural schools.
Suggestion laid by number of local school boards to close schools mostly in small towns and rural areas have upset parents as their kids will spend more time every day on buses — sometimes up to two hours each way if this suggestion followed.
Annie Kidder, an executive director says that the education funding model disadvantages rural schools, which typically have smaller populations than their urban and suburban counterparts.
Funding is mostly provided on a per-student basis, which means schools with smaller populations — like those in small towns — have less money to pay staff and heat their buildings, she says.
She also added that closing schools in small towns means more people will move away from those areas, and into cities.