Flat Broke Toronto School Board Goes Far Afield to Find New Students

All the way to China, in fact:

The cash-strapped Toronto District School Board is looking to China to help fill funding gaps.

Reports in the National Post say the TDSB is looking to attract more foreign students to Toronto's schools.

That's because these students pay to learn while they are here, high school students to the tune of $14,000 per school year.  The rate is $12,500 for elementary students.

The school board opened a marketing office in Beijing in April and is running as a pilot project for six months at a cost of about $17,000.

The TDSB has contracted out Chinese recruiters to attract students in the past but thinks more can be done.

TDSB schools have seen a 53% rise in foreign student enrolment from 2008 to 2012, which works out to just over 1,400 students.

Almost 1,000 of them were from China.

The Board aims have 5,000 foreign students enrolled each school year, or 1% of the TDSB student body. 

The TDSB accepts more foreign students from China than from any other country...

Sorry, but it seems bonkers to me to try to "fix" a broken system by educating kids from a completely different country.