Why is Toronto DSB trying to erase high schools for special needs kids?

William Paul  – 2026-03-16

The Toronto DSB has cut off enrolment for grades 9 and 10 next year at Heydon Park SS and Eastdale CI. Parents of the vulnerable students who attend these two small schools are worried for the future of their children and they’re angry about it.

Needs of students with disabilities and special education go unmet: A letter to Minister Paul Calandra

David Lepofsky  – 2026-03-05

I write on behalf of the Toronto District School Board’s Special Education Advisory Committee SEAC. We seek your help for TDSB’s 40,000 students with disabilities/special education needs, because you are now the elected official with ultimate responsibility for TDSB operations while under provincial supervision.

Frontline work without frontline supports: Rethinking educator well-being

Ardavan Eizadirad and Saskia Eschenbacher  – 2026-03-02

When a teenager arrives at school after witnessing a violent incident in their neighbourhood or at home, educators do not get to call “time out.” They help. But it takes a toll and they may well need help themselves.

Fordwatch 3: The saga continues

Susan Atkins  – 2026-02-28

Forgetting is a basic ingredient in any government’s recipe for holding on to power. That’s why School Magazine has kept a tab on the efforts of this government to act for itself and its friends.

Here is Fordwatch 3 and hopefully there won't be a Fordwatch 4. If you’ve forgotten headlines, stories and details, just click on the Fordwatch links for a reminder.

Basket weaving: Ford and post-secondary funding

William Paul  – 2026-02-23

The Ford government has made it harder for lower income students to pay for post secondary education, just as Doug Ford himself tells them to stop picking ”basket-weaving courses” when the taxpayers are paying the education tab.

Black history, Black futures: What our students deserve

William Weaver  – 2026-02-18

From our friends at the Chicago Teachers Union:
Too often, the Black Panther Party appears in classrooms only through surface-level discussions of resistance or through pop culture portrayals that reduce the organization to its visual symbolism—black berets, leather jackets, firearms, and a militant image.

Depoliticizing pedagogies of comfort and instrumentalism

Henry Giroux  – 2026-02-14

Education is too often reduced to efficiency, training, metrics, and measurable outcomes, while pedagogy is judged less by its intellectual force than by whether it preserves student comfort. This emphasis focuses narrowly on whether students feel uneasy or anxious in response to challenging knowledge.

Power play at Bowmore PS: an exercise in intimidation

William Paul  – 2026-02-04

The school community at Bowmore PS was looking for support and fair collaboration from the Toronto DSB. What they got was 2 administrators moved, 2 teachers fired and 8 more suspended. The community is in shock.

Mr. Calandra: Return our trustees

William Paul  – 2026-01-30

The TDSB needs its trustees back. They and colleagues from four other school boards, were shown the door at the end of the 2025 school year. The Board is run by Ministry of Education (MOE)-appointed Rohit Gupta who issues periodic decisions as he keeps the community in the dark.

Education against the storm: A homage to intellectuals who did not survive their time by surrendering to it

Peter McLaren  – 2026-01-18

Henry Giroux is one of the most formidable intellectuals of our time: a man endowed with a steel-cast mind, disciplined, unsentimental, intolerant of intellectual fraud. His seriousness was never brittle. It was elastic, grounded, dangerous in the best sense—dangerous to complacency, to cynicism, to the rituals of cowardice that pass for professionalism.

Critical education: Let’s discuss the minister’s year-end message

School Magazine  – 2026-01-08

Paul Calandra’s year end letter to school communities under supervision is a fine educational resource for teachers at many grade levels. Any grade 5 kid could learn from it how words are used to deceive.

Making hope in 2026

William Paul  – 2026-01-05

Imagine, friends of public education, if we allied with other citizens distraught about the evaporation of human rights and democracy, environmental collapse, cost of food and its offspring, malnourishment, housing and its offspring, homelessness. What if there were others who would join to demand redress for unmet obligations and further incursions on the rights of Indigenous peoples, deteriorating conditions of work, health and public education; all of it overseen by governments buoyed by a culture of cronyism? Imagine if we organized.

Special Ed parents: protecting democracy in our schools

Karen Bojti  – 2025-12-19

The winter holidays are upon us. It’s school concert time. Last night, I watched proudly as my son held up the entire baritone section of his school’s choir and played violin with the orchestra. Charlie is nearly sixteen and very sweetly, still believes in Santa Claus. He loves school and his teachers, his high school music teacher most of all. His courses and activities are the lifeline that keeps my son thriving. He has no idea that all three are under constant threat.

Open Letter to TDSB supervisor, Rohit Gupta: why fire the director of education?

School Magazine  – 2025-12-15

Mr. Gupta: It’s high time for you to open that little door at the bottom of the Dark Tower, formerly known as the Toronto District School Board, come out and explain yourself. For half a year, after its elected trustees were arbitrarily suspended, you have run this public board by decree.

EQAO isn’t the crisis — it’s Ford’s diversion tactics

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-12-07

Another commission to "review" why kids aren't learning math at the rate the Ministry of Education wants? Really? What's it going to find beyond what we already know?

The “notwithstanding clause:” a tool for autocracy

William Paul  – 2025-12-01

Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith has been busy these past couple of months, invoking the “notwithstanding clause,” to protect legislation affecting schools, labour and families. Over the past few years, premiers have come to see the “notwithstanding clause” as a handy tool to avoid court challenges to legislation. But it’s undermining democracy and the problem is getting worse.

“Please Hold: Your child’s future is important to us”

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-11-14

Ontario teachers aren't looking for bonuses or huge salaries. They're looking for safe class sizes, support and humans working with kids in classrooms. Paul Calandra's plan for a call centre, if it supplants elected trustees, will only push those wishes further from reach.

The TDSB lottery for admission to specialized programmes did NOT fail students

William Paul  – 2025-11-01

The TDSB under the Ministry of Education, Rohit Gupta up and decided to cancel a lottery system designed to give students more equitable access to special interest programmes. No discussion, no explanation other than Minister Paul Calandra saying he got complaints.

From Trump to Ford to Smith: the attack on public education

Nigel Barriffe  – 2025-10-29

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith invoked the notwithstanding clause to override Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms  in order to  force Alberta  teachers back to work, it wasn’t just an assault on Alberta educators — it was a warning to all of us.

Bill 33 and police in our schools

Kathy-Ann Murray  – 2025-10-23

Police in schools is not safety. This is surveillance. This is policing—not protection. And this is exactly what Bill 33 threatens to expand across Ontario.