Support your progressive school trustee
What we face
The Ford government is doing all it can to degrade public education. It claims that it’s putting more money into education than ever before, but it’s not even covering inflation. Over eight years about $6.5 billon has been cut from school boards, a loss they’ve had to swallow by shrinking programmes and resources for kids. At a time when most boards were scrambling for money, the Ministry of Education (MOE) responded by taking over eight of them, putting each one under the supervision of someone answerable only to Education Minister, Paul Calandra. Their job was to eliminate basic services and programmes, increase class sizes and cut budgets.
Doug Ford disdains hindrances like freedom of information and democracy. Trustees at the school boards under supervision were dismissed – no pay, no access to the people who voted for them, no ability to debate or vote on any issues whatsoever.
To ensure that local school governance would be reduced to a bare minimum, last spring, Ford decreed that all school boards, no matter their size, would have a maximum of 12 trustees paid, at most, $10 000 per year. A big business buddy, he introduced the position of CEO to local boards, someone who could be hired though not fired by trustees. The CEO will develop budgets and may overturn certain board decisions.
Under these circumstances, school board trustees have hardly any power to govern or deal with the overwhelming needs of their constituents. No doubt, Doug Ford assumes that school boards across the province have been sufficiently eviscerated to be compliant nonentities as he continues to impose his version of corporate efficiency, for example, by requiring thousands of teachers to order their school supplies from Staples, an American company owned by a private equity firm.
What we can do?
Vote for a progressive local trustee. Doing so is an act of resistance to a government run by and for its cronies. Such a trustee knows their power has been usurped. Such a trustee understands that there is little more to lose from a government that only takes away.
But this presents a host of possibilities.
Progressive trustees can form an extra-opposition to the Ford government. They can criticize and oppose board administration decisions reflecting government neglect. They can make it clear to the public just who owns the funding cuts that harm their kids’ education. They should continue to demand that boards not only restore but extend what was once normal in schools: equity, manageable class sizes, resources for children who learn differently and need accommodations, music programmes, outdoor education, community access to schools and so much more.
What can Doug Ford do? Fire them?
He has made a tactical error by cynically gutting school boards, while leaving them in place to remind everyone of his authoritarian stupidity. All the problems he has brought to public education may now be publicly dropped in his lap.
