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Jamie: I think you've got the funding business half right, but miss its implications. Ontario has traditionally used property > taxes to fund education, but the Harris gov't is moving away from this. > Until recently, relatively well-to-do cities like Ottawa had handsomely > funded boards of education because of the rich tax base, while poor > boards were often found in rural and northern Ontario. > > The new system, funded more (but not exclusively) by the province will > make per capita funding more equal, from what I understand. Certainly, this makes things "more equal" per capita but it ignores the fact that the vast majority of ESL students are in Toronto area and that programs for these students are far more expensive. So while it may make sense to skim off Ottawa's budget to give to North Bay (a jurisdiction you can be sure will never be short so long as his lordship...), the real cash cow for the Ontario government is the GTA. By scooping away the cash from Toronto, and crippling programs necessary for the needy students here, Mike and his mechanics can make his rural jurisdictions very happy (and very Conservative in the next election). Meanwhile, well-to-do Ottawans might just start looking to charter schools. That too would make Mike smile. Rob Irish