The province runs the school boards now. Should it?

You elected a school trustee in 2022. In most of this region they are not, at the moment, running anything.

Over the past year the education minister has placed eight boards under provincial supervision, sidelining their elected trustees. Toronto’s public board got a supervisor after an investigation found a projected $11.3-million deficit this year and $58 million next; the Toronto and Dufferin-Peel Catholic boards followed. In January the Peel District School Board, the province’s second-largest, was taken over, with the York Catholic board put on notice. The minister cited infighting and long-term financial unsustainability. In July he said supervision could last years.

The province’s argument is that a board that cannot balance its books has forfeited the right to run them. The unions’ and the boards’ argument is that the deficits are the province’s own funding formula catching up with it, and that a supervisor is a way of changing the subject.

Trustee elections are still on the ballot on October 26. It is fair to ask what the winners will be allowed to do.

Sources: CP24, Peel under supervision, York Catholic on notice · Global News, supervision could last years · CBC, the unions call it a distraction from underfunding · Ontario, school board oversight