Ontario Bill Would Let Education Minister Seize Control of Troubled School Boards

Ontario’s government has tabled a sweeping bill that hands Education Minister Paul Calandra authority to put any school board under direct supervision—not just for busted budgets, but for “matters of public interest.” The draft law arrives after trustees at several boards billed taxpayers for pricey foreign trips, prompting a provincial takeover of one board and probes at three more. Calandra says the aim is to stop trustees “wasting thousands” on side quests while teachers buy classroom supplies out of pocket.

If passed, the legislation would also compel boards to accept school-resource-officer programs wherever local police offer them, reversing decisions by some urban boards that scrapped on-site policing after student pushback. Trustees would need ministry sign-off on new school names, while senior-staff expenses would go online for public review. Post-secondary institutions aren’t spared either: they’d face new rules demanding merit-based admissions and blow-by-blow tuition-fee reporting.

Boards and unions call the bill a distraction from chronic underfunding that has left libraries understaffed and pools closing. The Ontario Public School Boards’ Association warns that below-inflation grants are the real crisis; the Elementary Teachers’ Federation brands the move “authoritarianism cloaked in accountability.” Yet Calandra insists firmer oversight will keep dollars in classrooms, not boardrooms—setting up a summer showdown at Queen’s Park over who controls public education’s purse and priorities.