The people of Ontario expect a system of democratic local control.

We know you will just say give the money to the parents. Can you find one political party that agrees? That is the only way it can happen. Ask John Tory how it works.

The point of Gee’s article is that school board authority is neither local nor democratic.

If you think the TDSB is bad news then come visit the PDSB. They make the TDSB look like pikers. The PDSB is run by a group of trustees and fellow union travelers the classroom teachers refer to as the clowntrust. A group of 14 year olds could run their turf better than the local Bozo the clown troop. What with their OD training everything is just touchy feely with them. They are far more interested in making the suits look good than giving kids a sound education

Who was it that doubled and tripled and merged the boards and removed their tax power? Oh ya. Mike Harris made them far less democratic.

And the alternative would be…... what that a majority would support?

I really hope it is not vouchers. There is really zero chance of that and everybody knows it.

The Ontario Libertarian Party agrees with control being given back to parents

By the way Doug, there is nothing remotely democratic about school board and trustees. Nothing at all, and more so when no one knows the names of their school trustee. I still think TDSB tops all the school boards of Canada, when it comes to corruption, overspending, plagiarism and other kinds of questionable activities and actions of the TDSB. What the TDSB does very well is hiding their dirty laundry , while pretending to be there for the little kiddies.

Since the late spring, I set up a new file labeled TDSB, following the plots of many erupting to the surface of the TDSB. It makes for interesting reading contrasting to the mayor fiasco. The latest developments of the TDSB tops it all. It also shows how the TDSB puts a bad name on all school boards in Ontario. I would never anticipate this turn of events, since I am still getting over my shock how education funding is financing a private school in Vietnam, and the former chair of the TDSB is now the CEO of the private school. I can’t wait for the future news articles rolling out and well into 2015, of how extensive the networks are to redirect public education monies into the Asian private schools networks.

“Reports surfaced last week that Chris Bolton, who suddenly quit as TDSB trustee and chair June 13, had left to become the new head of a Vietnamese private school. Canadian International School System, a two-campus, kindergarten to Grade 12 school, would not confirm or deny Friday that Mr. Bolton had become their new head of school, a position akin to a CEO. However a source familiar with the school said that in fact Mr. Bolton’s appointment was announced at the school that same day, during a meeting attended by TDSB associate director Gen Ling Chang.” http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/23/trustee-questions-tdsb-ties-with-vietnam-school-that-hired-school-boards-former-chairman/

A comment - “Who is in charge of this outrage? Where is Premier Wynne and her former Ministry of Education people? Can you imagine the uproar if this special interest/conflict was being perpetrated by a Conservative? Is someone investigating Bolton? What has our education system got to do with Vietnam? Are we soon going to see that infamous curriculum change Levin and Sandals tried to get approved a couple of years ago? They couldn’t do it then, but now? Help!” 

Turly a book could be written based on the news articles of the TDSB of the last two years. It would be a best seller as to why school boards are no longer democratic nor local. Private Vietnam schools???

Out here in BC, where the teacher’s strike is raging and no end is in sight, I think a significant issue which has not been mentioned, is on the current funding model of our school boards.  Both sides are screaming how there is no funding to do anything, yet we have thousands of school board staff throughout this province.  Are ALL of them necessary?  And locally, within our own School District, taxpayers footed the bill to the tune of $8,000, to help send a 17 year old student on a Finnish junket under the guise of “research” : http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/06/b-c-s-superintendent-of-achievement-under-fire-for-commissioning-education-report-from-19-year-old-he-met-at-wedding/
The entire system of public education has to be reformed, most notably that of our school board officials who employ dozens of education consultants bringing in their own marketing brand of textbooks…most of which are glitzy, trendy and completely inefficient.  Time for a reality check.

School boards are publicly funded, self-governing corporations.  I have been reminded of that many, many times.

“Self-governing professions exhibit three essential characteristics:  a unique combination of knowledge and skills, a commitment to duty above self-interest or personal gain, and self-governance free from external interference.”

“A key expectation of members of self-governing professions is that they accept legal and ethical responsibility for their work and hold the interest of public and society as paramount.”

Are you kidding me? 

School boards no matter where they are in Canada, have a big problem is sharing the education dollars to schools, and in turn to the students. Another file I have added is the BC file, this comes from a teacher’s perspective on the funding of special education and what happens at the school level. I agree with it 100 %, and there should be a forensic audit going back 10 years in each province on how the robbery of our children’s education takes places on the backs of the SE students and other students who are in need of help but don’t qualified.

” The cycle continues year after year. One child brings in funding for his or her medical diagnosis, so let’s split that seven ways in one classroom. The trickle-down effect is:

1. The students who qualify for support get a sliver. I have even seen on occasion the student who brings in the funding receive nothing because there are other students who require more, are a safety risk, or their struggles appear more urgent.
2. The students who don’t qualify but should, split the remaining slivers.
3. The students who don’t require support but would still thrive on personal attention from their teacher get a fraction of a fraction of a sliver.
ALL are being robbed.

I want to know why, in a province as wealthy as ours, in a country as wealthy as ours, not all students are receiving the education they need and deserve. Why are principals and teachers forced each year to triage the needs of students?”
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/elisha-bonnis/bc-teachers-strike-class-composition_b_5513703.html?utm_hp_ref=canada-politics&ir=Canada Politics

If you think any of that is going to change you missed the part about the most sympathetic politician in Ontario was just handed his head.

Again Doug, you are off topic. School boards are the topic, and subtopics are operations to whack out expenditures of $165 installation of a pencil sharpener to the private Vietnam schools to having lunch with Chinese officials attending to nepotism. Doug, no worries TDSB is doing a pretty good job on its own to where school boards just might become a thing of the past for Ontario. I highly doubt Wynne approves and she probably will start in the fall, since she needs to extract savings to keep her promises. A good place to start is to take over the TDSB as her pilot project of good intentions.

Nancy, you’re all over the map in respect to your last post to Doug. You have no substance as to what you say. Boards/public policy, et al, are here to stay in perpetuity!

Steve, funny how a short post becomes all over the map when people don’t like the contents, eh? The odd thing about Education Acts, they can be change Steve. Just remember that, never say never when it comes to the Education Acts.

Steve I am afraid you just need to ignore Nancy’s rambling stream of consciousness posts that are 10x the recommended guidelines.

if you ignore her she thinks she has won something.

School Boards Are NOT Perpetual

I was just reviewing this important book — Parental Involvement and the Political Principle: Why the Existing Governance Structure of Schools Should Be Abolished, 1995.

He says the democratic political principle expects that those affected should be involved and consulted in decisions that affect them.

Pg 169, he says:  “Boards of education are an anachronism with an ancestry going back to the one-room schoolhouse. Whatever virtues they may have had no longer are evident or even possible. They are now part of the problem, not of the solution.”

Charter schools and voucher plans and ESAs (Education Savings Accounts as in Arizona and Florida) are just some examples where school boards are not perennial middle-men, milking the education dollar.

Food for thought - a 2005 Harvard study - What School Boards Can and Cannot (or Will Not) Accomplish
http://scholar.harvard.edu/jlhochschild/publications/what-school-boards-can-and-cannot-or-will-not-accomplish

The next link are the proponents of the so call democratic school boards, that are not democratic at all when it comes to their operations and governing education. http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11800

Moving unto a dissucssion at People for Education - Paul Bennett said it best - ” Today the bureaucratic education state is omnipresent.  When parent concerns are rebuffed by local principals, they have virtually nowhere to turn. Local democratic control has eroded to the point where many now call for the complete abolition of the current system based upon School Boards and elected bodies of Trustees.”  http://discuss.peopleforeducation.ca/forum/topics/do-we-really-need-school-board-trustees

Sure the school board trustees are elected, but the operations of the school boards run like a typical fascist or Stalin regime. No accountability to student outcomes nor apologies for making the wrong education decisions on the behalf of the students and individual students.

Read Bob Peterson’s comments Nancy.

I know him well. Education reform is run by very rich very profit and ideologically motivated plutocrats to result in privatization and super-profits at taxpayers expense.

Everybody else involved in Ed Reform are less than pawns.

The latest on the TDSB and where Chris Bolton’s last location was in Japan, and now it is Central South America as Bolton has claimed. The latest being is the denial of Chris Bolton against the evidence outlined by the National Post and also the Toronto Star. http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/06/26/former-tdsb-chair-denies-taking-overs-as-ceo-at-private-school-in-vietnam/

And here - http://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2014/06/18/mari_rutka_takes_over_as_toronto_public_school_board_chair.html

Some private campus in Vietnam - A cool $46 million dollars and even has bowling lanes for the students - http://www.vietnambreakingnews.com/2014/03/new-cis-campus-opens-at-phu-my-hung-new-urban-area/

http://thanhniennews.com/education-youth/canadian-international-school-in-vietnam-moves-to-46-mln-campus-24527.html

TDSB is busy taking in teacher applications for the new Vietnam private school. http://jobsineducation.com/job_listing/overseas-teaching-positions-in-all-divisions-2