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Mr. Bolton’s comments come in the wake of a report, released last Thursday, by a provincial government-appointed team that said the TDSB still has work to do to bring down its costs and eliminate a $50-million structural deficit. The TDSB has perennially faced budget shortfalls, complicated by the fact it has faced steadily declining enrolment for more than a decade as most school boards have, due to a declining birth rate. Since 2001 the TDSB has lost 40,000 students, although it expects to see a small uptick in its elementary grades in the coming year. The TDSB made $27-million in budget cuts in June, following another $28-million in staffing cuts approved during the winter.

China is the TDSB’s largest source of overseas students, followed by Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Germany. Staff and trustees have made several trips to China, often as guests of the Chinese government, to meet with Chinese officials about how the board and government can work together to provide cultural exchange experiences for students in Toronto and China. This has included bringing Toronto students of Chinese heritage back to China in the summer for Chinese language programs. TDSB teachers and principals have also visited for professional development courses, such as learning to speak and teach Mandarin.

As well, the school board finalized an agreement with the Chinese government in 2011 to open a Confucius Institute in Toronto, although work is still being done to get that ready for full operation. Similar in concept to an Alliance Française or Goethe Institute, the Chinese government backs a network of about 350 of these cultural and language learning centres around the world, sometimes housed within local educational institutions. Confucius Institutes have raised criticism by some as a Chinese “soft power” weapon with an aim of influencing how China is discussed, especially when they are set up within universities and school boards. Hamilton’s McMaster University recently closed its Confucius Institute after it said concerns were raised that China’s hiring process excluded practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that is regarded as a dangerous cult by China.