When did we stop embracing Toronto’s diverse cultural identity? How could we possibly believe that segregation was the answer to anything? Why in the year 2008 are we taking a giant step backward in racial equality? Last night the Toronto District School Board set back any hopes of racial equality at least 40 years by voting 11 – 9 in favour of opening a publicly funded alternative Africentric school in 2009.

The start-up costs are estimated at $350,000 and the total price should come in around $820,000. The location is yet to be determined. Call it what you want, but “Africentric” means black. And no matter how you try to spin this in a positive light, a black school means segregation.

The mother of murdered teenager Jordan Manners saw the plan for what it was and was dead against it. She spoke impassionedly against the proposal. “Martin Luther King and how many of our fathers fought to come together so blacks and whites could come together, for us to sit in the front of the bus together. I don’t think that we should have a black school. It’s not right,” she said. “Let us all come together and be as one.”

This plan is supposed to do something about the alarming drop out rate among black teens, which is now estimated at 40%. With all of our fine educational minds at work, is segregation the only plan that has a hope of success?

Now that we have opened Pandora’s Box, what next? Would Chinese students fare better in publicly funded Chinese schools? And, what about Greek students in Greek schools? Let us not forget that John Tory committed political suicide by supporting a plan for publicly funded faith based schools. If we are now publicly funding an “Africentric” school, why aren’t we funding Muslim schools and Jewish schools? Where does it all end? But, better yet, why did it begin at all?