TORONTO, July 31, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Community leaders from across Ontario, in partnership with the Orthodox Union’s Teach Coalition, are proud to announce the launch of TeachON to address the disparity in government funding for families whose children attend an independent school in Ontario best suited to their educational needs.

TeachON’s first priority will be to pursue a broad portfolio of policies related to STEM education, school security and special needs funding.

The Ontario-based group will follow a similar model to the broader Teach Coalition, working with MPPs to secure proper funding for independent schools. As part of this mission, TeachON will be putting together a broad coalition of organizations, federations and schools that represent the many varied communities in Ontario whose children attend an institution best suited to their unique medical, religious, philosophical or pedagogical needs.

Teach Coalition, a leading nonpartisan organization advocating for equitable funding in nonpublic schools has secured more than US $1 billion in funding for non-public schools in North America since 2011.

Sam Eskenasi has been tapped as executive director of TeachON. Eskenasi is a long-time advocacy professional, most recently having worked in areas related to medical and health policy, anti-Semitism, and human rights in Canada, Israel and throughout the Middle East. He also served as director of communications for Canada’s most senior Jewish human rights organization, B'nai Brith Canada.

“Through our partnership with Teach Coalition, we’re able to learn from their best practices in order to work with our politicians to secure the necessary funding for children who attend an academic institution best suited to their unique educational needs,” said Eskenasi. “As a parent, this issue is especially meaningful for me and my family.”

“We’re excited to welcome TeachON into our coalition,” said Teach Coalition’s Director of State Political Affairs Dan Mitzner. “Parents, community leaders and school administrators have important issues on their agenda and we believe that our successful Teach Coalition model will help them achieve their goals in Ontario.”

TeachON, a member of the Teach Coalition, was founded in 2019 to advocate for equitable government funding for independent schools. With a network of community leaders, parents and educational institutions across the province, TeachON is working to relieve the unbearable financial burden placed on the more than 138,000 children in independent schools by ensuring that all children in Ontario receive their fair share of access to education funding. For more information, visit https://www.teachon.ca/.

Contact: Sam Eskenasi
TeachON Executive Director
(437) 240-1900
sam@teachon.ca