Backlash Politics and the Dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education

Editors of Rethinking Schools  – 2025-07-17

Fearful of the light that public education can shed on American culture, history, economics and politics, Donald Trump has decided to shutter the U.S. Department of Education (USED). The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to let him go ahead.

Ford’s school board takeover: a real estate heist disguised as education reform?

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-07-09

The school board takeovers are right in the Ford government’s playbook. Starve the system. Blame everyone else. Change the rules. Sell off public assets. And reward developer buddies. It’s happening again — this time with our schools.

The only thing that’s ever stopped them is organized, vocal, public pressure. That’s what we need now.

Why is Ford really hijacking school boards?

William Paul  – 2025-07-04

Paul Calandra accuses boards of losing focus and mismanagement. This is coming from a minister of the government that brought you Highway 413 and the Greenbelt scandal - for whom mismanagement is a watchword .

Calandra’s school board takeover will just let Ford and his cuts off the hook

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-06-29

The Ford government has finally dropped the other shoe. After years of starving our public schools of the funding, it has taken over four Ontario school boards for what it calls financial mismanagement.

Kids are fighting to save their principal, but the fight is about so much more.

Katrina Matheson  – 2025-06-27

Why is the Toronto DSB transferring the much-loved Barrie Sketchley of Rosedale Heights School for the Arts to another school - the closing note to his 33 year career as its principal?

“No Other Land” and the politics of hypocrisy

William Paul  – 2025-06-22

“No Other Land," like every good documentary, shows the lives of the people living in Masafer Yatta a West Bank village gradually demolished by the Israel military. It deserves to be watched, not banned by the Toronto DSB which fears its political content.

Bill33: Power grab and cops in schools

William Paul  – 2025-06-09

Bill 33, Supporting Children and Students Act is positively Trumpasitic if you look at the effects of pounding the financial hell out of school boards, blaming them for their problems and then coming up with a Draconian plan to get them to smarten up.

From Trump to Ford: authoritarianism wears many jerseys

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-06-06

Donald Trump and Elon Musk—two billionaires who’ve been looting the public purse like raccoons in a food truck—are now clawing each other’s eyes out on the internet.

From the Greenbelt to our schools: Paul Calandra is selling us out

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-06-05

Through his new Bill 33, Supporting Children and Students Act, Paul Calandra is focused on grabbing more power—at the expense of democracy, public education, and community voices.

How do we value education?

John Weatherup  – 2025-05-30

How do we value our kids and employees in a Toronto District School Board that has had to cut education routinely? How do we value seniors who paid for the school system through their taxes and now face the possibility of user fees as they try to use it? What is the value of what we think we are doing here as a school board moving forward?

Public education is in crisis. We can’t afford to stay silent

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-05-21

Parents, educators, and allies—we built public education together. Let’s defend it with the same love and urgency.

Ontario schools and the structural deficit: Looking everywhere but at the problem

William Paul  – 2025-05-20

The Ford government is pointing its finger in the wrong direction, blaming school boards for not getting by on less money to fund their operations.

Why I Won’t Be Walking for Israel

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-05-12

Why I won't be walking for Israel.

Report says real message of Grassy Narrows rallies lost in fury over Pro-Palestine chants

William Paul  – 2025-05-06

Remember the Grassy Narrows River Run last September? Maybe not. It’s certainly possible you lost the story in the flames of outrage expressed over Toronto DSB students attending the rallies and hearing chants like: “from Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime” and others by people in the area protesting the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

End Fear-Based Voting: Why Educators Should Demand Proportional Representation Now

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-05-01

As Monday's election tells once again, we need to fight for better wages, affordable groceries, dignity in retirement—and at the same time—push for a fairer electoral system. These struggles are one and the same.

What is happening to our most vulnerable students?

William Paul  – 2025-04-23

What is happening to the most vulnerable students in our schools? It’s true that kids may be vulnerable for all sorts of reasons – poverty, underfunding of schools and systemic racism to name a few. But there are at least 358 000 young people that the province acknowledges require special teaching or treatment or accommodation. For many it's not happening.

Conscience: why educators won’t stay silent on Gaza

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-04-17

As a teacher and union leader, I believe we must stand against all racism — including antisemitism — and against the mass killing of civilians. Our conscience compels us to demand better from our leaders. Canada must implement a two-way arms embargo on Israel now.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) stands up to fascism

William Paul  – 2025-04-07

By pushing back against the Trump administration's wanton destruction of government and the public good, the Chicago Teachers Union is taking a stand against fascism.

Why we can’t blame teachers for a broken system

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-04-02

Teachers should, if they choose, be able volunteer their time to organize events like sports, concerts, art displays and so on. But that doesn't mean school boards and the Ford government get to use their unpaid work to back off funding.

Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Education Department was inspired by the Heritage Foundation’s decades-long disapproval of the agency

Fred L Pincus  – 2025-03-25

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 20, 2025, that calls for closing the U.S. Department of Education.

The president needs congressional approval to shutter the department. But his order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take the necessary steps to close the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.