Fight Back Against Underfunding

Supervision is when the province removes decision-making power from a publicly elected school board and appoints a supervisor to take control. 

That supervisor can make financial decisions without public input and without community accountability. A supervisor will be appointed to enforce compliance—not to solve the board’s funding crisis.

The supervision of school boards is part of a ploy to take attention from chronic underfunding of our schools.  All reports* cleared the TDSB and TCDSB of any financial mismanagement.  

Supervision is an attempt to silence elected trustees from speaking the truth about the underfunding of our schools.  It also silences local advocacy to improve student achievement and well-being.

We believe it is because trustees - democratically elected - have been speaking out about the chronic underfunding of our schools.  If the Province supervises the school board, there is no one who would be able to speak up on behalf of the local community like parents or students.  

So the fact that the Province has underfunded Ontario school boards by $6.3 billion since 2018 would not be brought up by the Supervisor, since their only mandate is to report back to Ontario’s Education Minister and ensure compliance.

Because of:

• Chronic underfunding by the province

• Inflation (costs have gone up, funding hasn’t kept pace) and structural deficits (where funding for Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance and Special Education haven’t kept up)

• COVID-related reserve spending the province encouraged—and now won’t repay

Every student now receives $1,500 less than they did in 2018 (Building Better Schools, 2024), adjusted for inflation.

Removing Local Autonomy and Public Voice

This proposed amendment would enable the Ministry of Education to remove local control and public voice from school boards and their elected trustees without a non-partisan, third-party investigation, based only on their opinion. This would remove all local control and transparency from policy, program, and budget decision-making. 

Mandating Policing in Schools Instead of Investing in Real Student Supports

Additionally, the proposed amendment would “[Require] school boards to implement School Resource Officer (SRO) programs where they are offered by local police services starting in the next school year.” This is under the guise of “Promot[ing] student success and enhanc[ing] student, child and youth safety.”

Trustees play an important role in making sure local parent and student voices are heard.  Here is what we stand to lose without a publicly-elected school board trustee.

It’s important to note that in all other provinces (like Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) the elimination of school board trustees have been an abject failure and parents have asked for a reinstatement of trustees. 

Ricardo Tranjan recent published an article for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives detailing how public education funding has significantly decreased. he cumulative funding gap since 2018 amounts to an astonishing $6.35 billion.

Click here to read the full article.