There is a crisis occurring in education in Ontario. Two different Reviews of two very high profile school boards – the Toronto DSB and the York Region DSB – pointed to a culture of fear, silence and retribution in the education system. Both also pointed to a dysfunction and deficit of leadership capacity on the administrative and elected sides of the organizations. Margaret Wilson’s review called for a roll-back of trustee power. Suzanne Herbert and Patrick Case called for meaningful professional development in relation to trustee responsibilities and governance training so trustees would better understand and fulfil their responsibility of providing elected leadership. They found that far too many trustees “failed to demonstrate a basic understanding of their role and responsibilities as elected leaders.” In spite of these high profile government interventions, the problems continue. We’ve now reached a crisis point in Ontario.
Read MoreAn Open Letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne and Education Minister Mitzie Hunter
Dear Premier Wynne and Minister Hunter,
The systemic racial discrimination that the Reviewers – Mr. Case and Ms. Herbert – are currently investigating in the York Region District School Board is happening in other school boards in Ontario, too. There’s also systemic gender discrimination occurring in school boards across the province.
Read MoreThree Hidden Ways Education Contributes to Discrimination
Ontario’s education system is a world-class education system. Canadian students perform well on PISA – the Program for International Student Assessment – and there have been positive results over the past fifteen years in increasing elementary literacy and numeracy, improving graduation rates, and reducing the number of low-performing schools. But there’s a dark side to the system we don't recognize. Ontario’s education system also unwittingly contributes to gender and race discrimination.
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