After years of well-documented problems, it appears the Ford government is finally getting serious about implementing some serious reforms to the public education system. In Ontario, spending on the public education system doubled under the Liberal McGuinty and Wynne governments, while student performance declined. Since 2018, when the Ford Progressive Conservatives were first elected, there has been much talk about education reform but very little action.
It seems a recent announcement of abysmal standardized testing results by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), which regularly measures student achievement, was the final straw for current Education Minister Paul Calandra. These recent results showed that 42 per cent of Grade 9 English students and about half of English Grade 6 students failed to meet provincial standards for math. These poor results prompted Calandra to announce that he would be appointing a new advisory body to oversee a complete review of Ontario’s education system and how student learning was being supported. The review will prioritize math, writing and reading performance as it seeks to identify the reasons for gaps in achievement.
Calandra has already initiated serious reforms to the public education system, taking the dramatic but justified step to place several school boards under provincial supervision due to mismanagement and the inability to balance their budgets. Recent years have seen ridiculous examples of wasteful spending, such as a luxury trip to Italy for Brant Haldimand Norfolk school trustees to choose artwork, a pricey retreat for the Thames Valley School Board at the Blue Jays stadium hotel and a conference in Hawaii for staff members of the Lambton Kent School Board, among other outrageous expenditures. Clearly the abuse of our scarce tax dollars is not much of an issue for school boards. The inability to balance already-generous budgets has also been a feature of Ontario school boards for a very long time.
There have also been disastrous decisions by school boards in Ontario that do not involve financial issues, such as sanctioning such things as permitting students to participate in pro-Palestinian/Hamas demonstrations which were dishonestly represented to parents as a very different school trip. School curricula which involve the promotion of such controversial and discredited concepts as social justice indoctrination of students, critical race theory and endorsing certain viewpoints on international issues such as the Israel-Gaza conflict have also raised serious concerns for parents and detracted from student learning of more conventional subjects such as math, literacy and problem solving.
Of course, the teachers’ unions, which are a key reason for many of these problems, has been strenuously opposing any changes. You have probably heard the many advertisements being run on radio stations regularly about how the Ontario government is “playing politics” with the school boards instead of focusing on the real issues. As usual for these unions, the problem is always that more taxpayer dollars need to be thrown at the system and smaller class sizes are the real answer, requiring even more teachers. More teachers mean more union dues, which is the true motivation for union demands.
The reality is that the cost of the Ontario public school system has increased dramatically over the past decade, with no substantial improvement in student achievement or the performance of school boards. True structural change is needed, and it is surprising it has taken the provincial government this long to make a start on substantial reform.
Ontario is not the only Canadian province with these problems, but it could also learn from some of the solutions that have been implemented in other provinces. For example, Alberta is a leader in having charter schools, which are non-profit schools in the public system which follow the provincial curriculum yet operate outside of the traditional school authority. Some of these schools are specialized to focus on a particular subject matter or student expertise and offer parents choices within the public system. The Alberta experience indicates that charter schools consistently outperform traditional schools in terms of student achievement by a wide margin and actually have lower per-student costs.
In providing competition to the regular school system, charter schools also serve to improve performance in the whole system. Given the Alberta experience, all provinces should institute charter schools. The most strenuous opponents to charter schools are the teachers’ unions, which are a key reason for the problems in the system. Union opposition alone should be a good indicator that establishing charter schools is the right way to go.
Parents, students and taxpayers should be supportive of Calandra’s undertakings to seriously reform the failed Ontario public school system. Much needs to be done, and opposition from current stakeholders of the status quo will be fierce. But our current system costs a great deal, provides minimal choice to parents and, most importantly, does not properly prepare students for a successful future. Good luck to Calandra as he works to address the problems in this important government system.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
