In My Opinion: New education legislation won’t staff our schools
By SARA EHRHARDT
What is happening in our schools? Last year, the provincial government seized control of Toronto public and Catholic school boards from area elected trustees like myself. They installed supervisors making $2,000/day who answer only to the Minister of Education – not our community.
Since supervision, we learn about new and concerning developments at our local schools only through local parents raising concerns.
St Joseph parents have spoken out about the loss of Educational Assistants; Bowmore Road parents rallied as almost the entire Grade 7 and Grade 8 teaching complement were either removed or suspended without transparency around what was happening. And local parents have raised concerns that Eastdale – a critically important east end school for youth with special needs city-wide – is not offering Grade 9 placements at all next year, a signal the school is in danger of closing.
Before provincial supervision, issues could be raised by members of the public at open meetings of elected trustees, and trustees could respond and take action. But this isn’t happening under supervision.
Instead we see:
- Cuts to teachers and educational staff.
- Increases to special needs class sizes.
- Less information about staffing and budgeting decisions that affect our children.
A new piece of provincial education legislation has been introduced and could pass very quickly. The bill proposes many concerning changes to how school boards would be governed and run.
The legislation caps the number of elected school board trustees to 12, meaning the elected representatives for the Toronto District School Board—the largest school board in the country— will be nearly halved.
The Minister of Education made clear that supervision could continue beyond the next trustee election. This means the province expects people to vote for their next school trustees during municipal elections this fall without any clarity on if or when the people they elect would actually start their responsibilities.
The province must end supervision before Ontarians go to the polls and allow their democratically elected school boards to govern from day one.
Meanwhile, we are learning through leaked information that deep staffing cuts are planned for fall.
Our area schools could lose vice principals, office staff, support teachers, language supports, lunchroom supervisors, and more.
The government’s recently announced gift cards for teachers cannot make up for these deep cuts.
Principals are instructed to keep next year’s staffing a secret, and parents are told they’ll “just have to wait” until September.
This approach will not help build the relationships principals and schools communities need to support children and workers alike.
The government took school boards under supervision on the premise that they would restore funding to the classrooms, but that is clearly not what is happening.
Children are required by law to go to school, so the public is owed a higher degree of transparency around the affairs of schools.
There are no hard class caps after Grade 3 in Ontario, and unclear requirements for staffing ratios during classroom transitions and breaks; so the province’s supervisors could cut staff without firm guardrails.
We should know how many classes and teachers, office staff and support workers can be expected in our school buildings before we send our children next year.
If you are concerned with what is happening, I would encourage you to contact the Premier [https://correspondence.premier.gov.on.ca/EN/feedback/default.aspx].
The government can choose to fund more staff in our schools at any time, and they can also choose to end supervision so the people elected in October 2026 can govern.
- Sara Ehrhardt was elected in 2022 as Toronto Danforth’s public school trustee. She helped found the Toronto Education Advocacy Network. She maintains a website at www.SaraEhrhardt.ca and can be reached at SaraTorontoDanforth@gmail.com
