Elimination of Public School Board Trustees

 

Elimination of Public School Board Trustees

The Ontario Provincial Conservative government has demonstrated its over-reach, through the efforts of their Education Minister, Paul Calandra’s, efforts to actively eliminate the position of local public school board trustees through the passing of Bill 33.  To date the province, based on the accusation of “mismanagement”  has removed trustees from five major School Boards and replaced them with provincially appointed supervisors.  A new level of bureaucracy, ‘The Student and Family Support Offices” will be put in place, by January, in these five suspended boards and by September /26 in all other Boards, effectively removing the influence of locally elected Trustees.

This radical change to educational governance  reduces the strength of local democracy and autonomy, silences the community voices and completely sidelines community accountability.  The province’s spin of course is the opposite, that their reforms serve to increase accountability and transparency while focussing on student success.

These changes are a contest between local and centralized control of education.  The conservative agenda historically is to erode public education by favouring private schools, often of a religious nature, allowing for a more effective teaching of the conservative values, ethics and agenda.  This is a dangerous move as it undermines the connection between a well educated populace and a free thinking democracy.

Transparency and accountability are best achieved with decentralized and at a local level so as to align with community needs and student success.