I have been out of the country for a few weeks but am now headed back and on this four hour stopover I have been thinking.
It would be nice to believe that if only communities would get together, work to stop local school closing and believe in democracy that the cannibalizing of school buildings and lands would stop.
But that is not so. Look at what happened to the modest Rexdale proposal.
They wanted the board to be as good as its PowerPoint shows and have a more democratic school review process.
That failed miserable in March but not because of any fault of the community.
The Board does not and will never want communities to have a real say during a review.
If that happened, then no school would ever close.
No community wants to be without a local school in walking distance. No community would want their local school land dug up and turned into a housing development never to be used again as a school site.
The Board sees this community attitude as a Not In My Backyard syndrome. “Close any other school but ours for the good of the city.”
But it isn’t NIMY, it is civic reality that makes communities believe that they should have community schools.
It is an understanding of what a civil society should be that reject the closing of any school.
These are very noble motives to have.
The Board’s motives on the other hand are not so noble.
The Board believes that it must close schools and sell off the land in an attempt to break even on its budget.
That budget is totally beyond its control because it is completely dependant on the funding formula and Provincial incentives that encourage the sell off.
So, no matter how democratic or not the ARC process is, it will almost always lead to the closing of schools and the sell off of the sites.
Last year, the Jane/Finch community stopped the process by loudly protesting and interrupting the process. A victory for sure.
But, rest assured, the Board will try to find ways around this kind of reaction.
That does not mean that community resistance is futile: just the opposite.
It is very important to slow down the process as was done in the Briar Hill area, or stop it, if possible like we did in Jane/Finch.
The slower the process goes, the more chance communities can address the real problem at the provincial level.
And the more communities get involved, the more we can insist on true democracy. The Jane/Finch community is committed to helping others fight local school closures. This is not a NIYBY thing.
And that really is the main area of resistance that we need to go after.
So let’s keep going to ARC meetings and insisting that the community voice is strong.
Every one we win will bring us closer to seeing this antisocial process stopped.
