Question 4 – Zone 12 Response
Contents
The Question in brief
Response from:
– Rawlson King
The Question in Brief
In your opinion, is equitable, inclusive education important? Why or why not?
Rawlson King
As a proud Black Canadian, our community can count on me to support equitable, inclusive education and the continued implementation of the Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy and support the creation of an Equity and Diversity Strategic Framework.
I demonstrated my support for equity by opposing the closure of Rideau High School. The school had a diverse student population, which included low-income Indigenous, people of colour and Syrian refugees. Diverse communities believed that Rideau High School was absolutely essential for improving educational outcomes and increasing the life skills and opportunities for youth. Unfortunately, the School Board made the wrong decision when it voted to close the school since half the children in the area live below the poverty line in social housing and a high proportion were racialized, Indigenous and immigrant youth. We perceived of the fight to keep the school open as a battle against a systemic racism, and I clearly emphasized and enunciated that fact.
My belief is that the school board needs to be proactive to strengthen equity, along with improving integration and inclusion of all minority communities, as well as work to eliminate systemic racism and discrimination within our schools through both policy and substantive action. Policies must be clearly enumerated, but action must be measurable. The key to ensuring increased recruitment and retention of diverse staff and anti-racism training in schools will be to develop policy and benchmark the effectiveness of its implementation through the budgetary process, where measures and program spending can be clearly outlined. Budgets should be created where success can be quantitatively measured through an equity lens. Currently, there is no equity lens for the budget. If elected, I will advocate that one is adopted for the upcoming fiscal year.
I would like to see an Equity and Diversity Strategic Framework that adopts two of the goals that are encompassed in Durham Region’s document, which includes: the goal of school and classroom practices reflecting multiple social realities and perspectives to identify and eliminate barriers to learning, along with ensuring that equitable access and practices are reflected in our policies and programs to create an inclusive environment where all stakeholders have a sense of belonging. The Framework should also outline the importance of listening to the “students voice” and offering opportunities to students to strengthen diversity programming through both traditional and alternative means within the classroom. The school board also needs to set goals to ensure that it works to equalize resources across schools so that all children across the city have equal access to quality education.
I would also support implementation of the Compendium of Action for Black Student Success in the OCDSB, which includes the collection of race-based data on the performance rates of racialized groups. I will advocate for the use of data to improve student achievement, along with creating better lines of accountability to parents, by focusing on critical metrics that include equity and academic performance. Let’s also commit to let the “sunshine in” by making the data open source and available to the community (with necessary privacy protections included).