CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES
Ontario's plan to eliminate school boards is anti-democratic

It seems that every few years, another province toys with the idea of eliminating school boards -- those pesky thorns of local democracy that stick in the side of governments flush with neoliberal fantasies of making education more "efficient" and results-oriented. 

A few years ago, Manitoba tried, but fortunately the pushback was intense, and the conservative government of the time had to content themselves with merely reducing the number of school boards. This year, it is Ontario where provincial Education minister Paul Calandra (a former federal cabinet minister under Stephen Harper) has followed the standard playbook -- accusations of financial mismanagement, suspensions and "supervisors" to show them how it's done, while musing about "by the end of the year to possibly eliminate trustees from school boards across the province". 

This neoliberal strategy of defunding, devaluing and deposing is happening with public healthcare in Ontario, and now with education. It will be much easier for the Ford government to impose their "back to basics" agenda on educators and parents who know better without the messy democracy of elected school boards.

And why should Ontarians care whether school boards are eliminated? In Nova Scotia all English language school boards were abolished in 2018 and replaced with unelected "Regional Centres of Education."  A Provincial Advisory Council on Education (PACE) was appointed and School Advisory Committees (SAC) were set up, structures that are totally ineffective at providing the type of local knowledge and stakeholder representation previously provided by school boards.

One example of the lack of citizen input into education is inaction on 2LGBTQ+ issues in the schools in Nova Scotia. Schools have cancelled presentations without explanation, removed materials, and delayed updating the Guidelines for Supporting  TransGender and Gender Nonconforming Students originally written in 2014. The update was drafted over a year ago, but has not been released in spite of repeated calls from teachers, parents and opposition politicians. The government's policy seems to be to make a show of consultation and research, claim the work is almost completed, and then drop the issue. 

Although Nova Scotia's Conservative premier Tim Houston achieved his majority government in 2021 with a promise to reinstate school boards, he has reneged on that promise.  Having ensured that one level of democracy is dead beyond redemption, he has turned his sights on municipal councils. Using bike lanes as a wedge issue, the premier is musing about strong mayoral powers so that municipal councils can be overruled by their mayor and/or the province. He has already passed Bill 24, allowing the province to override municipalities' Regional Transportation Plans. After the Halifax council voted overwhelmingly (13-4) against the mayor to continue with a particular bike lane that had already been approved by them and city staff, the premier said there was a "serious disconnect between the decisions being made and the desires of citizens." 

It is shocking that he would characterize the decisions of democratically elected representatives, each of whom represents an entire constituency of residents, as being contrary to their desires.  By threatening to use Bill 24 to stop the bike lane in question, the premier forced many councillors to retract their votes and the bike lane was paused.  This bill, along with strong mayoral powers would render councillors superfluous and irrelevant, thus discouraging others from running and contributing to the self-fulfilling prophecy that no one cares about municipal council. Another layer of democracy defanged and devalued -- how long before the government deposes them?  

Ontario has been underfunding education systematically for years, while accusing school boards of failing to balance budgets. Real government funding per student fell by $1,500 per student between 2018 and 2024, resulting in 5,000 fewer educators in the province. The government was able to do this by increasing the percentage of the core education funding designated as "planning provision" (which boards can't spend at their discretion) to almost five per cent of the overall budget, a drop which has a real impact on quality of education. Now, with some boards under "supervision" they are making a show of putting their spending under the microscope, with items like a $15 milkshake creating sensational headlines. 

This is just one way in which the government erodes trust in school board governance. Other ways are attributing the number of "acclamations" in school board elections to lack of interest, amalgamation of school districts making school boards so large that parents and board members feel their influence is minimal, and the fragmenting of boards in areas such as Toronto by language and religion.

Sadly, Nova Scotia provides a negative example of what can happen to democracy when there are no school boards. But recently, the Edmonton School Board has provided a wonderful example of how a local elected board can push back against a provincial government intent on ramming bad policy down their throats. 

The Alberta government has already implemented numerous policies such as forcing teachers to tell parents if their under-16 aged child is attending gay/straight alliance clubs or asking to be called by pronouns other than their assigned gender. The province recently directed school employees to remove any library materials that depicted sexual acts, including by a "written passage." In compliance, the Edmonton board created a list of 226 well-known books, including the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, to be removed from school libraries and reading lists. The pushback from the public was so strong, including from Atwood herself, that Danielle Smith, the premier, accused the board of "vicious compliance" (she probably meant "malicious compliance") but then changed the policy to replace "written passage" with "visual depiction" -- a climb down on behalf of the government. 

"Vicious compliance" with absurd ministerial directives is one way of fighting back, and it sounds like the Edmonton board made themselves very relevant!

The Ford government has already defunded and devalued school boards and are close to taking the last step of deposing them. The constitutional rights of the Catholic and French school boards may provide some protection for them, but as the education minister says, "The public school trustees have no constitutional cover whatsoever." 

Will Ontario be able to push back against this whittling away of democratic institutions and use this opportunity to revitalize their school boards and make them relevant again?