• News
    • Business
    • Canada
    • Health
    • International
    • Israel
  • Perspectives
    • Advice
    • Big Ideas
    • CJN Podcast Network
    • Features
    • Opinions
  • Food
  • Culture
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Books & Authors
    • Russian
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Events
    • Contests
    • Montreal – About Town
    • Toronto – What’s New
  • Supplements
    • Spotlights
  • En Français
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre
  • Log Out
Search
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre (eCJN)
  • Log Out
  • Newsletter
  • FaceBook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
CJN - Canada’s largest Jewish newspaper
March 6, 2021 - 22 Adar 5781
CJN - Canada’s largest Jewish newspaper
  • News
    • The race to be the leader of the Conservative Party

      Q & A with Ari Greenwald: Responding to a pandemic

      Israel declares complete coronavirus lockdown on eve of Passover

      Gantz says forming a unity government may take more time

      Students learn computer programming RHA FACEBOOK PHOTO

      Online classes up and running in Vancouver

      AllBusinessCanadaHealthInternationalIsrael
  • Perspectives
    • A Long-Awaited Return, feat. Jody Avirgan

      To our readers: Everything has its season. It is time

      Listen: The CJN Podcast Network, Signing Off

      Healthy Aging: Your next doctor appointment will likely be virtual

      Shinewald: Making this awful moment more tolerable

      AllAdviceBig IdeasCJN Podcast NetworkFeaturesOpinions
  • Food
    • Delicious desserts for Passover

      Festive food for small seders

      Passover meals for the whole day

      Passover taco Tuesday

      Family Seder recipes

  • Culture
    • How philosophy and theology can be in dialogue together

      Socalled is trying to make the best of his downtime

      Veteran singer returns with ‘toxic’ single

      Stories explore relationships between family, friends

      Jewish movies you should stream while self-isolating

      AllArts & EntertainmentBooks & AuthorsRussianSportsTravel
  • Events
    • CJN VIP

      How’d you like to be a VIP? Giveaway

      Giveaway: The Song of Names advance screenings contest (CLOSED)

      CJN-Prize-new-Entry Ad 2019

      The CJN Prize 2019 (Closed)

      Come celebrate the launch of the CJN Podcast Network

      Jewish Music Week Contest (Closed)

      AllContestsMontreal – About TownToronto – What’s New
  • Supplements
    • Passover Greetings

      Focus-on-Ed-2020

      Focus on Education

      Celebrations-MS-20

      Celebrations

      Hanukkah Greetings

      Celebrations

      AllSpotlights
  • En Français
    • À la mémoire d’un ardent ambassadeur de la culture sépharade, Solly Levy Z.’L.’

      “La haine des Juifs n’a jamais eu de limite”

      Le dossier du Dr. Marcus Fraenkel: la réponse de la CIVS

      Israéliens et Palestiniens luttent ensemble contre le coronavirus

      La lutte contre le coronavirus au Centre médical Sheba de Ramat Gan

  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre
  • Log Out
Home Featured Jewish Learning Fraser Institute offers tuition grants to needy families
  • Featured
  • Jewish Learning

Fraser Institute offers tuition grants to needy families

By
Frances Kraft
-
January 31, 2008
1268
0

TORONTO — Children First: School Choice Trust – a program of the  Fraser Institute, a conservative think tank – is in its sixth year of offering grants to low-income families for tuition at private schools, including religious schools.

The program, which began in 2003, covers half the cost of tuition, at any Ontario private school that is registered with the provincial ministry of education, up to a maximum of $4,000. They are available as early as junior kindergarten and are renewable until students complete Grade 8, subject to funding availability.

In Ontario, the program, which is funded by the W. Garfield Weston Foundation, supports about 1,000 children at more than 200 private schools. Recipients include 57 students at 13 different Jewish schools, mostly in the Toronto area, according to Michael Thomas, director of the program.

Jewish day school tuition in the Toronto area ranges from about $10,500 to more than $14,000 per year in the elementary grades.

There are also two students receiving grants at Jewish schools in Calgary, where the program was instituted more recently.

Other sources of funding – such as subsidies or family support – for the remaining portion of tuition do not affect eligibility, said Thomas.

If grantees remain eligible for the program, they are allowed to renew their grant every year until Grade 8. That means there are about 300 openings for new grantees in Ontario, Thomas said.

Sometimes students leave the program if they move out of province or transfer to the public school system, he noted.

Family income is the sole deciding factor for grant eligibility, although with many more applicants than available money, new grants are awarded  based on a lottery.

To qualify, household income “must not exceed amounts equal to twice the poverty line as defined by the [Fraser Insitute’s] Basic Needs Index,” to the program’s website says.

More specifically, for a family of four to qualify for the coming school year, 2007 income would have to be less than $52,817. Likewise, for a family of three, $45,469; two people $37,411, five people, $59,653; and six or more in the household $66,091.

Thomas noted that some parents have come up with “really creative solutions” to pay for the portion of tuition not covered by the grant. He recalled two cases (not at Jewish schools) in which parents worked on a volunteer basis at their children’s schools in exchange for tuition credit.

“Children First helps families who have different needs, whether it’s a desire for smaller class sizes to help their kids catch up, developing artistic talents, or just wanting a safe school that teaches values important to the family,” Thomas said in a news release.

The impetus for the program, Thomas said, was research conducted by Claudia Hepburn, the institute’s director of education policy, on student performance when parents have greater choice of schools.

Among its findings were improved student literacy and improvement in performance of public schools, Thomas said.

Although many scholarships exist for post-secondary education, the Children First program was the first of its kind in Canada and is the only one of its kind in Ontario, said Thomas.

He followed with interest last fall’s provincial election, when funding of faith-based schools was a key issue, but “because we’re a registered charity, we remain non-partisan and don’t take positions on those kinds of debates.”

However, he added, “certainly there would have been a benefit to many of our families [if government funding of faith-based schools had been implemented], and it would have allowed us to help more families attending other schools.” He noted that approximately 75 per cent of Ontario’s 800 private schools are faith-based.

Grant applications are available online at www.childrenfirstgrants.ca. Applications can also be submitted by registered mail or by calling 1-866-924-8881.

 


Frances Kraft

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

A Long-Awaited Return, feat. Jody Avirgan

A message to our readers with an update:

À la mémoire d’un ardent ambassadeur de la culture sépharade, Solly Levy Z.’L.’

Subscribe to the CJNSubscribe
RSS FeedView
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe / Member Centre (eCJN)
  • eCJN Archives
  • Supplements
  • Media Kit
  • Advertising Terms
  • Premiums

PODCAST TRAILER: These Are a Few of My Favourite Jews

75th Anniversary - Liberation of Auschwitz

Ezer Mizion's 2019 Night Shuk

  • Canada
  • Israel
  • International
  • Opinions
  • Food
  • Culture
  • En Français
  • CJN Podcast Network
The award-winning Canadian Jewish News (CJN) is Canada’s largest, weekly Jewish newspaper with an audited circulation of nearly 32,000 and read by more than 100,000 people each week.
© 2021 Canadian Jewish News
  • Comments Policy
  • Community Links
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
  • Admin
 Tweet
 Share
 WhatsApp
 Copy
 E-mail
 Tweet
 Share
 WhatsApp
 Copy
 E-mail
 Tweet
 Share
 LinkedIn
 WhatsApp
 Copy
 E-mail