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Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra visits a Grade 6 math class at Wazoson Public School in Ottawa in December, 2025.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The takeover of seven Ontario school boards by the Progressive Conservative government could mark the beginning of the end of the province’s elected school boards. Managed properly, it could also be the beginning of a fix for financial accountability problems and poor learning outcomes that are harming Ontario students.
Having the provincial government oversee school boards – with directors of education reporting directly to the ministry, not elected boards – makes sense, as it aligns responsibility with authority. Right now, the trustees can blame the education minister for underfunding, and the education minister can blame the boards for poor execution. With the ministry clearly in charge, the blame game can stop and the province will be pushed to ensure schools have the money they need.
Education Minister Paul Calandra has ordered provincially appointed supervisors to take over finances and operations of school boards in Toronto, Ottawa, Peel Region and other areas, citing budget deficits and the depletion of financial reserves. Teachers’ unions, school board trustees and opposition politicians are warning it’s an anti-democratic power grab that masks what they say is the real issue: school underfunding.
Mr. Calandra has been musing about eliminating elected school trustees across the province. His plans are complicated by potential Charter and constitutional issues that could emerge if he scraps elected Catholic and French school boards, but English boards could soon find themselves on the chopping block.
It’s too late to shed a tear for Ontario’s elected school boards, which have been rudderless since the 1990s, when then-premier Mike Harris took away their taxation powers, and school district amalgamation diminished local connections. They are weak and have struggled to provide proper oversight to the directors of education, who oversee staff. In turn, the directors of education offer little transparency around the administrative layers of staff who work outside of the classroom.
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Advocates of elected school boards (some who, like Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles, are former trustees) have said the takeovers silence local democratic representatives. However, the democratic credentials of school trustees have withered, with seats often chosen by acclamation. While local voices still need to be heard, changes led by a democratically elected premier are hardly the suppression of the people’s will. Newly established student and family support offices can serve as links between parents and school board staff when needed, rather than trustees.
The issues that Mr. Calandra has cited to take over the school boards – infighting, inappropriate expenditures and deficits – are not unique to those districts. One third of school boards projected a deficit at the start of the current school year, despite provisions in the Education Act that normally require them to stay in the black.
More money isn’t the answer to everything, but with so many boards having difficulty covering inflationary and staffing costs that are out of their control, a look at the funding formula is warranted. The minister will have to take an unflinching eye to the difficulties teachers face every day, with many reporting a lack of support to deal with students with behavioural and learning difficulties in their classes.
Both sides have oversimplified the narrative around funding. Often, ideological arguments underpin these disputes, as big city school boards seek to promote initiatives that are not a priority for the provincial government. A balance needs to be found: Attention is needed to ensure all children are treated fairly, without losing focus on the core mission of teaching of math, reading and other essentials, which all children need to thrive.
Mr. Calandra should use the seven school boards already under ministry control to show that centralized control can improve how they are run. Can their finances be stabilized without gutting key supports for teachers and students and boosting class sizes? Can tangible steps be made to improve math teaching, given that Ontario student test scores are lagging despite a revamped curriculum?
If students fare better with their schools under provincial management, it will show that eliminating trustees isn’t a needless power grab, but a way to bring accountability back to the school system.
