The Board of Education of North York, a borough within Metropolitan Toronto, has voted unanimously to integrate part of a Jewish day school into its structure and pay all costs. The integration will take place September if the province’s Ministry of Education gives approval.
This move, which may be a historic one, culminates negotiations, campaigns and discussions which have been going on for years to obtain tax aid for the Jewish day school and alleviate the heavy burden on Jewish day school parents whose full tuition fee for such schooling has been $1,525 per year and who pay school taxes as well.
The proposal is regarded as an experiment and will effect grades 7, 8 and 9–in effect, the 400 pupils of the Junior High School of the Associated Hebrew Schools, one of Canada’s largest Jewish all-day schools. During the two-year experiment this Jewish junior high school will be treated the same as all other North York public schools, with the teachers receiving regular North York salaries, and with the same student-teacher ratio and the same support services such as health.
Hebrew-languages courses will be considered as part of the general curriculum. Purely religious studies, however, will be given after official hours and will be paid for out of Jewish community funds. No fees will be paid by students. It has not yet been announced which studies will be considered “Hebrew-language” and which “religious.” Because the school is part of the public system, children of all faiths will be admitted providing they are willing to accept the Hebrew part of the curriculum.
Reception of the news has not been unanimous. The Toronto Star, the country’s largest daily, last week headed an editorial with the caption “A Jewish School is No Public School.” It criticized the plan as “merely a method of opening the door to public funding of private schools” and advising the minister of education “to reject it.” North York, a populous suburb within Metropolitan Toronto, contains about 75-80 percent of Toronto’s Jewish population. Jews constitute about 20 percent of the borough’s population.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
