Doug Ford government sets sights on Ontario's school system
New education bill puts focus on 'back-to-basics,' gives minister more power over school boards
Premier Doug Ford's government is embarking on what it calls a transformation of Ontario's school system that includes pushing a back-to-basics agenda and giving the education minister more power.
The groundwork for this transformation is laid in a new bill that Education Minister Stephen Lecce tabled on Monday, dubbed the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act.
In announcing the bill, Lecce said it is designed "to refocus the education system on improving outcomes for students."
Which prompts the question: what exactly does Ontario's education system focus on now, if not that?
"Schools need to be emphasizing and focusing on strengthening skills that matter to parents," Lecce said during a news conference on Monday.
"The goal here today is to send a signal to school boards to refocus their energies on what matters most, which is improving reading, writing and math skills and STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] education," Lecce said.
As evidence for his reforms, Lecce cites what he hears from parents.
"A lot of parents feel like kids need to focus in on those skills more," he said. "I think right now many families are concerned that their kids are not meeting the provincial standards."
If the government actually did in-depth research about what Ontario parents feel, it didn't reveal any on Monday. There were no public consultations about this move, whether with parents, students, teachers or anyone else involved in the school system.
That's a shift from the widespread consultation the government did in 2018 before deciding to rewrite Ontario's sex education curriculum.
The lack of consultation on a bill that a senior Ministry of Education official described as "significant and transformative" has got the sector both buzzing and puzzled.
"This is a big piece of legislation and it appears to have been crafted with no previous consultation," said Annie Kidder, director of the advocacy group People for Education. "It seems to be a surprise to everybody working in the system."
Kidder says an "old-fashioned notion" of education basics is problematic in 2023.
"There is no doubt that reading, writing and math are incredibly important. I don't think anybody would argue with that," Kidder said in an interview.
'A lot more they need to know'
"But we are hearing from employers, from experts, from researchers, from people who are worried about the state of the world, that there's a lot more to education than those three pretty narrow basics."
If Ontario's schools are going to put even more emphasis on reading, writing and math, Kidder wonders what they'll have to stop doing.
"It's important every [student] can read, write and do math, but there is a lot more that they need to know to be able to navigate the complex world they're going to face," she said.
WATCH | CBC reporter Mike Crawley asks Lecce how the bill will change the current system:
Lecce's back-to-basics push isn't just words. He's getting new teeth to make sure that school boards follow the plan.
The bill gives the minister new powers to set provincial priorities for student achievement, and require school boards to report publicly on how they're doing.
What happens to boards that don't meet the achievement targets? Lecce referred to his existing powers to hold school boards accountable. That includes the ability to dissolve boards and appoint a provincial supervisor in place of trustees.
"The ministry will be acutely interested in the adherence of every school board and work with them … to lift their standards," Lecce said. "If they don't, we will act."
The president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association, Cathy Abraham, says the move has trustees around the province demoralized.
"My phone has blown up today with trustees saying, 'I feel so disrespected,'' said Abraham in an interview on Monday. "The tone of what was said, the implication that we don't know how to do our job, the implication that we're not doing it right."
Schools being 'purposely' underfunded: OSSTF
Lecce is ordering trustees to take standardized training on governance, and imposing a provincial code of conduct on them.
The bill deals with a few other matters, including streamlining the process for school boards selling off properties they don't need anymore.
The provincial government gets right of first refusal on mothballed schools. First dibs go to the education ministry to decide if a property should be sold (at fair market value) to another school board. If not, the province can choose to purchase the land for such things as long-term care or affordable housing.
Selling the surplus school on the open market would be the final option.
Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF), says the proposed legislation seems primarily focused on how school boards operate, and "not on how we can better support students and make up for the learning loss experienced during the pandemic," said
"This government likes to put the blame on others and say schools are underperforming, when in reality these schools are being purposely underfunded by the Ford government," Littlewood said in a news release.
This is just the latest installment in a decades-long debate over what schools should be teaching, and how.
Lecce says his aim is to provide skills to prepare kids for life and to help them transition to post-secondary or the skilled trades.
"The kids don't feel confident or ready," Lecce said. "That is not a reflection on them, it's a reflection on the system."
Ontario outperforming almost all G7 countries
His message to parents: "We hear you, we understand the problem and we're investing to meet the challenge by refocusing the system on what actually is going to help your kids succeed."
Lecce's argument is based on a perception that Ontario schools are doing poorly at teaching math and literacy.
While he points to scores on provincial standardized tests as evidence, one could equally point to international tests as evidence that Ontario has one of the best systems in the world, outperforming all other G7 countries on reading and beating all G7 countries except Japan in math and science.
"School boards across Ontario have no problem with focusing on arithmetic and reading and writing because that's what we do already," said Abraham.
She said she's concerned about putting too much emphasis on those basics.
"As school boards, we believe that our job is so much more than just that," Abraham said. "It's fundamentally part of our responsibility to ensure that our successful graduates are successful members of society."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
