Compromise reached for school-board elections
QUEBEC Unable to convince the English-speaking community to surrender its constitutional right to control its school boards, the Quebec government won’t abolish school board elections entirely in legislation to be tabled on Friday.
A compromise “parallel system” will be included in the new bill that will be introduced in the National Assembly, sources told the Montreal Gazette late Thursday.
School boards remain, but their councils of commissioners would be transformed into school councils, composed of parents, school personnel and members of the community.
Each school board currently has a council of commissioners, made up of elected commissioners, which oversees board operations.
The olive branch to anglophones is that parents would have the option of launching elections to vote in part of the new school councils, notably the members of the community, although they wouldn’t be obliged to exercise that option. That’s where the government’s compromise “parallel system” comes in. Those options would exist in both French and English school boards.
“The anglophone community will still be able to elect a part of the school council after consultation with parents,” a source said.
The Liberals had promised to do away with school board elections.
The government is not touching school taxes in the new legislation.
Apart from its composition, it’s unclear how the proposed school councils will differ from the current councils of commissioners, and how much money the government will save with the restructuring. Also up in the air is whether the English-speaking community will buy into the proposed restructuring of school boards. Reached late Thursday, officials at the Quebec English School Boards Association said they will only comment once the bill is tabled.
English school board representatives have said they will fight tooth and nail to preserve their constitutionally entrenched right to manage their own school boards, vowing to take the battle all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Education Minister François Blais said he would do away with school board elections after the government spent $20 million on elections last year in which the voter turnout was extremely low.
Premier Philippe Couillard argued this week his government is working to give schools back to parents. “We will be centring the governing of the school on the classroom, on the child, on success of the child, giving more say to parents, giving more say to teachers and having more accountability in the system. This is going to be reflected in the bill,” he said.
Couillard said he was taking into consideration anglophones’ constitutional right to manage their own schools. “From the start, I said that I totally realize the importance of the school boards for the English-speaking community and I say this again. And I want to reassure that the influence of the community will not be lessened, it will be, I think, improved,” Couillard said on Wednesday.
QESBA has countered that bringing changes to school governance is unnecessary, since it is unlikely to have any impact on student success.
Marlene Jennings, a former member of Parliament, released a report in September which concluded that the Quebec government is constitutionally obliged to keep English school board elections, but could lower costs of the elections by allowing people to vote online, by mail or phone. The report was commissioned by several English community groups, including QESBA.
On Thursday, both the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire railed against the fact that a major piece of legislation restructuring school boards was being tabled on the very last day of the fall parliamentary session.
“They have decided to do so specifically to make sure they won’t have to answer any questions,” said PQ education critic Alexandre Cloutier. “They have told you, at the beginning of the year, that that will be the masterpiece of this fall. It hasn’t been. They have decided a public relations way to make sure that they will not have to answer all those questions that are very legitimate.”