Commentary

Don’t dilute democracy in education

September 11, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Councillor Tess Prendergast

The provincial government is now openly musing about eliminating elected school board trustees. Education Minister Paul Calandra has suggested that Ontario’s governance model is “outdated” and that the role of trustees may no longer be necessary.

Under this same government, we’ve also seen the rise of “strong mayor powers,” giving mayors the ability, in some cases, to pass by-laws with only a third of council’s support if they match provincial priorities. Those changes diluted the role of councillors and shifted decision-making away from the community. When you add it all up, this feels less like reform and more like Queen’s Park pulling power away from our communities.

School board trustees are often the only direct and local democratic voice parents have in public education. Trustees are elected, accountable, and rooted in their communities. They answer to parents, students, and taxpayers, not to Queen’s Park. If they disappear, so too does a critical avenue for parents to raise concerns and influence how schools are run.

Yes, there have been examples of poor decision-making and expense scandals at school boards. But the solution to those problems isn’t to eliminate the role altogether. If municipal councils experience problems, we don’t eliminate councillors. Instead, we improve accountability, strengthen transparency, and educate citizens on how to engage with the system. The same principle should apply to education.

Anyone who’s been to a board meeting knows democracy can get messy, and that’s okay. Debates about school names, policies, or curriculum are not distractions; they are signs of an engaged public. Eliminating trustees under the banner of “efficiency” may speed up decisions, but it does so by shutting out the very people those decisions affect. Streamlining without local input doesn’t make governance better. It just makes it less democratic.

If the government truly wants to strengthen education, it should focus on underfunding, classroom resources, and student well-being. It should also invest in civic education, helping Ontarians better understand the role of trustees, encouraging higher voter turnout in trustee elections, and building stronger pathways for parent engagement.

That’s the kind of system I want to see as both a teacher and a councillor, one that’s accountable and democratic.

Public education is a cornerstone of our democracy. Diluting community voices by eliminating elected trustees may serve short-term political goals, but it will weaken our long-term civic health. Instead of taking power away from the people, the province should be working to bring them in.

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