The Communist Party of Canada (Ontario) condemns the Ford Conservative government’s politically motivated seizure of four democratically elected school boards: the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, and Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. Minister Paul Calandra’s claim that this is an act of fiscal responsibility is a cynical smokescreen.
In reality, this is a brazen attack on local democracy and on public education itself. It represents a significant escalation in the Ford government’s agenda to defund, dismantle, and ultimately privatize our public education system, while simultaneously imposing its regressive, narrow-minded “back to basics” ideology. This slogan is being weaponized to undermine progressive curriculum, gut funding for a well-rounded education including arts, sports, as well as vital support services, and silence communities demanding equity and inclusion. It also sets the stage for sell-off of school lands and buildings, further transferring public wealth to the private sector.
Ontario’s Bill 33, the so-called “Supporting Children and Students Act,” laid the groundwork for this power grab, granting the Minister sweeping, undefined authority to override local decision-making under the vague guise of “public interest.” This includes mandating the return of School Resource Officers (police) to schools, ignoring the well-documented harm this causes to racialized students, community decisions against such programs, and the systemic issues driving violence in schools. The appointment of provincial supervisors to school boards constitutes an anti-democratic manoeuvre, stripping elected trustees of their mandate, their pay, their emails, and their ability to represent their communities. This action against local boards is to silence opposition and targets the significant influence progressives hold at the local level, mirroring the Ford government’s previous undemocratic slashing of Toronto City Council.
The takeovers follow a pattern seen under past right-wing governments, notably the 2002 takeover of the TDSB by the provincial Conservative government of the day. It aligns with the dangerous trend in provinces like Nova Scotia and Quebec, where elected boards were abolished entirely. The result is a bureaucratic, unresponsive system, detached from community needs, where parental concerns are ignored and decisions lack public oversight. However, this situation suits right-wing provincial governments well as they do not have any local opposition to their defund and privatize agenda.
The government’s narrative of “mismanagement” is a diversion from the real crisis, which is the deliberate and systemic underfunding of public education by consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments. The Ford government alone has cut a staggering $6.3 billion from education since 2018, when adjusted for inflation and enrollment growth. This engineered scarcity, creating larger classes, gutting special education supports, leaving infrastructure to crumble resulting in sweltering classrooms, and forcing the cancellation of essential programs, is the root cause of the deficits boards face.
The provincial funding formula itself is fundamentally flawed, failing to cover the actual fixed costs of running boards. This was explicitly confirmed by the Ontario Auditor General in 2024. Even the PricewaterhouseCoopers report on the TDSB, commissioned by the government, found no wrongdoing, only challenges stemming from inadequate funding. History repeats itself because the core issue remains unaddressed: inadequate, inequitable funding forces boards into impossible choices, and when trustees, reflecting community aspirations, refuse to make catastrophic cuts to student well-being, they are punished.
This takeover is a key tactic in the Ford government’s broader assault on public services and democratic rights. It follows the defund, destabilize, demolish democracy, and privatize playbook: first, starve public institutions of necessary resources; second, blame the resulting crisis on local administrators; third, seize control and eliminate local representation to silence dissent; and fourth, open the door for private interests.
The TDSB’s vast real estate holdings are a prime target for this privatization push, facilitated by the Ford government’s previous legislation, which streamlines school property sales. During a takeover, the legislation empowers the minister to dictate not only what properties are sold, but also how much they are sold for and who they are sold to. This follows years of restricted funding for repairs, leaving many properties vacant and languishing for years, becoming irreparably deteriorated. The government will then be “forced” to sell these public assets, likely at a discount, to private interests. The concurrent promotion of e-learning and the conditions created for an expansion of private tutoring further this privatization agenda.
The Ford government and the Carney Liberals plead poverty while presiding over obscene wealth concentration. However, corporate profits continue to soar and the federal government has just pledged $150 billion per year for militarism and war. There is endless money for corporate handouts, subsidizing private spa developments at Ontario Place, and buying out beer monopolies so that retail monopolies can privatize beer and wine sales, but never enough for our children’s classrooms, for healthcare, or social housing. This exposes the lie of austerity; money exists, but it is deliberately diverted from the public good to private profits and imperialist aggression.
The Communist Party of Canada (Ontario) stands firmly with students, parents, education workers, unions, and communities resisting this attack.
We demand the immediate reinstatement of democratic school boards and the full restoration of powers to elected trustees.
We demand a new, needs-based funding formula delivering adequate, stable, and equitable funding from provincial general revenues to guarantee quality education for all students, reversing the $6.3 billion in cuts and addressing critical needs like class sizes, special education, crumbling infrastructure, and diverse programs.
We demand the end of “balanced budget” legislation which requires public entities like school boards to implement cuts, despite systemic underfunding, or face provincial takeover.
We demand an immediate halt to the fire sale of public school lands and buildings, recognizing schools as vital community hubs requiring massive investment to clear the $16.8 billion repair backlog and provide stable capital funding for safe, accessible, green schools.
This takeover is a wake-up call. Defeating this attack requires a united movement in the streets and communities, building a broad coalition of all defenders of public education and democratic rights. We must organize to demand that society’s wealth be used for people’s needs: fully funded public education, healthcare, housing, and social services.
