I don't think the importance of that could be overstated.
I personally have had the opportunity to visit dozens of communities every year and have seen first-hand the impact of underfunded schools. We hear from parents all the time, the challenges they face in deciding where to send their child. Do they send their child to a first nations school that is closest to them that is underfunded and where they won't get the same kind of quality education, or do they send them away where they could potentially or most likely face systemic racism issues?
It's a significant issue. Part of the work we do in schools is to support—there are many excellent schools, off reserve and on reserve—the work they do, by enhancing opportunities for youth, and also continuing that learning outside of school hours, in the summertime, after school. The responsiveness to that is incredible. Communities want these types of learning experiences.
I get that question all the time: “Science and Technology? Don't we need to start with the basics in some of these communities?” Not at all. There's no reason that science and technology could not be a phenomenal pathway for them to actually be motivated to stay in school. So there's that issue as well.
There's the issue of the quality, and then there's the issue of actually keeping them in school, regardless of what the quality is.