Are There No White Canadian Kids Dropping Out

Blacks not only pupils in need

By DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA

Trustees can't vote to create an Africentric school and then ignore higher dropout rates in other communities, one public trustee argues.

Toronto District School Board trustee Josh Matlow will introduce six motions tonight asking board staff to address an achievement gap among Arabic, Somali, Vietnamese, Persian, Portuguese and Spanish-speaking students.

The move comes less than three months after the TDSB approved a plan to open a black-focused school to help address what it called an achievement gap among black youth in the school system.

HIGHER DROPOUT RATES

"We have unintentionally stigmatized black students with the whole Africentric school debate," Matlow said, adding the board's own statistics show many groups have higher dropout rates.

In his motions, Matlow lists alarmingly high dropout rates for each group: Portuguese 43%, Hispanic 39%, Somali 37%, Persian 31%, Arabic (Farsi-speaking) 28% and Vietnamese 25%.

He stressed he's not asking for specific schools for each ethnicity but does want a concrete action plan on what the board can do to support ethnic groups with high drop out rates.

"If we're suggesting with black students that we have a role to play then we should not be ignoring students in other communities with high dropout rates," he said.