Next fall, adult learners enroling in popular evening and daytime courses through the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) will find registration much more expensive.
On Wednesday night, TDSB superintendent Roni Felsen told trustees at a program and school services committee meeting that adult course fees will increase by 45 per cent in a bid to make the program cost neutral.
With the change, an 11-week art class through the Learn4Life program will cost $495, up from the current $341 rate.
Felsen said staff project the cost increase could reduce course enrolments by up to 35 per cent but will bring the program, which has been running a deficit, into the black.
At the Wednesday night meeting, Don Weston, an 80-year-old on a fixed income told trustees that the “massive” increase would make the Learn4Life courses “totally unaffordable” for seniors.
Weston said he has taken wood carving classes through the adult learning program.
He said the programs have offered him real joy, and that through TDSB classes, he’s made many lasting friendships.
In a recent class, Weston said he asked classmates whether they’d be able to afford to continue participating if the fees increased significantly.
The majority of the class said ‘No,’ he told the committee on Wednesday night.
Not the first time program faces resistance
The planned increase came as a surprise to Jared Westreich, the founder of the volunteer group Friends of Learn4Life.
Westreich founded the group last March, after TDSB staff proposed cancelling the adult education program outright to help make up for a budget deficit of more than $20 million.
Westreich, who has taken courses in Spanish and bicycle repair, was alarmed by the plan. He spoke at a TDSB trustee meeting last spring and said he’d be willing to help the school board boost program enrolment numbers.
In the intervening months, Westreich’s group — which now counts 20 active volunteers and dozens of other supporters — handed out Learn4Life promotional flyers at farmer’s markets, advertised the programming on social media and connected with politicians who have promoted the courses through their newsletters.
Meanwhile, TDSB staff have also sought to decrease program costs and boost enrolment.
The work has been paying off. Last year’s program’s deficit was about $100,000 less than the year prior.
In 2022, the program ran at a $680,000 loss. Last year, the program ran a $580,000 deficit.
In an interview with TorontoToday, Westreich acknowledged there’s still a way to go in getting the program into a revenue-neutral position, but said it’s “very, very risky” for the TDSB to increase the fees so dramatically.
He said the change could decrease enrolment even more than the board anticipates and could create a more perilous financial situation.
On Wednesday night, Felsen said the board’s enrolment estimates are conservative, giving the TDSB considerable “runway” for registrations to drop while still maintaining revenue neutrality.
He added the Learn4Life program has only achieved cost neutrality twice since the city’s amalgamation in 1998.
The staff report, released in advance of the meeting, said Learn4Life’s ongoing deficits require funds to be redirected from other internal funding sources, such as staffing.
This contravenes the school board’s policy, which says adult education programs should be revenue neutral.
As course fees are largely under TDSB staff purview, trustees did not vote on the planned hikes on Wednesday and instead voted only to accept the report.
Concern about impact on seniors
Trustee Debbie King (Parkdale-High Park) noted the planned fee increase is highest for senior citizens.
Compared to regular fees, seniors pay a discounted rate for Learn4Life classes. But under the new rates, they will see an increase in program costs of 66 per cent next fall.
Beginning in September, fall art classes — the most expensive of Learn4Life’s offerings — will cost seniors $396, up from the current rate of $238.
Trustee King asked staff how they arrived at a plan where seniors were “bearing the brunt” of the cost increase.
Felsen said daytime programs are the most costly to run and seniors are the heaviest users of such programs.
He said Learn4Life’s evening programs already subsidize seniors’ daytime programs and that the planned fee increases aim to balance fairness across all groups.
But Roy Underhill, a 12-time Learn4Life course participant, said he was “disappointed” by the board’s choice.
In a deputation to trustees, he said the program is one of “one of the cultural gems of our city” and critically important for residents’ health.
In an interview with TorontoToday, Underhill recalled taking a canoe-making course at Bloor-West Village’s Western-Technical Commercial High School many years ago while he was working a high-stress job at IBM.
“I’d get into the room, smell the cedar, and the world just got better,” he said.
Westreich told TorontoToday the Learn4Life classes have improved his life, too.
The Friends of Learn4Life volunteer is currently on a four-month backpacking trip in South America, leveraging the Spanish skills he learned at a TDSB course.
He said he’s also soon headed to Europe on a bike trip, a journey that feels possible to undertake because of the bicycle maintenance course he took through Learn4Life.
Hope for a change
While Felsen said the fee change will roll-out in September, Westreich said he’s hopeful the board will reconsider.
He noted that last year the TDSB proposed a fee increase of nearly the same rate as this year’s planned hike, only to walk it back somewhat in the summer before fall courses began.
He said how the board proceeds in the coming years will have an impact on the tens of thousands of learners who participate in the program city-wide.
“If the city loses this program, it would be just an unbelievable loss to the social fabric of the city,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who really care about it and are willing to put in the work to fight for it.”
