We're famous: Ontario experience provides ample rationale for axing school boards

With all due respect to former Education Minister Marilyn More who wrote, “the Glaze report does not offer evidence to justify the extreme leap to disbanding elected school boards,” there is more than enough evidence to justify the move.

One need only look as far as Ontario to see why the recommendation is spot on.

In 2015, the Toronto District School Board was almost paralyzed by constant scandals involving trustees and senior staff. Over the course of two years, there were concerns about of fiscal mismanagement and a forensic audit. Also, there was a police presence at board meetings, harassment allegations were made against a trustee, breach of standard practice, yelling matches, and revelations of a shady deal with a Chinese government agency.

Education Minister Liz Sandals ordered a review of the board and placed Margaret Wilson, a former registrar at the Ontario College of Teachers, in charge.

In her report, Wilson wrote, “Co-operation between trustees is too often focused on making deals for mutual support. The level of trust between the senior administration and the trustees is low…there has, to date, been no attempt to review the Board’s governance model to remove the trustees from day-to-day operational decision making and to prevent interference on the part of many trustees, in the operation of ‘their schools in their wards.’ ”  (more...)

Ontario experience provides ample rationale for axing school boards

A case study in disfunctionalism?