CAQ elected: What does it mean for the education system?

François Legault’s CAQ swept the province on Monday’s election, taking 74 seats with 1,500,000 votes, about 500,000 votes ahead of exiting party PLQ, which only took 32 seats. Despite controversial comments and policies by its leader, the CAQ swayed Quebecers from all over the province.

Legault’s program for education has not been unanimously approved by teachers and school administrators all around. Starting with preschool education, the CAQ indicated that it wanted to establish a government-funded prekindergarten program that would be open for all four-year-olds, and would introduce private daycares, despite the superior quality of public preschools and their positive effects on the fight against poverty. However, at a press conference on Tuesday, Legault specified that, in the short term, his party would focus on identifying developmental delays and learning disabilities as early as possible for young children.

The CAQ also identified that it would eliminate school elections and school boards, to “empower those who directly care for our children: school directors, teachers, professionals, support personnel and parents.” School boards would then be transformed into school service centers. At Tuesday’s press conference, he tossed that resolution aside, insisting that it would not happen in the short term, the party’s priority being renovating schools.

The Syndicat de l’enseignement de l’estrie released a statement, in which they assured they would ask for better conditions for teachers in the Eastern Townships. They indicated that teachers in Quebec remained the lowest paid teachers in Canada, and that the CAQ must invest in its education system to ensure that teachers can offer high quality services.

When contacted by the Record, Mike Murray, Chairman of the Eastern Townships School Board, compared Legault’s plan to eliminate elected commissioners to the PLQ’S proposed Bill 86, which proposed eliminating province-wide school board elections to give more decisionmaking power to parents and teachers in 2016. The bill was scrapped after strong opposition from school boards across the province. Bill 86 and the CAQ’S proposed program threaten anglophone minority rights under the Constitution: minority-language groups have the right to control and manage their schools.

Murray added that some of Legault’s education plans were positive, such as targeting the identification of children with special needs, educating more teachers, and updating the physical aspects of schools. However, he explained that eliminating elected commissioners is “easier said than done.” School boards stopped Bill 86 and converted the Liberals into becoming active supporters of school boards and elected members. He concluded that new task of school boards across the province would be to convince the CAQ that school commissioners do in fact play a key role, and that they take into consideration the interests of the students, parents, and electors of their community.

The CAQ stated that there would be no negative repercussions with abolishing elected positions and reorganizing school boards. They indicated that “the nine anglophone school boards would be transformed into less expensive centres whose mission will be to provide administrative services and help with the management of schools.” It also ensured that English-speaking communities would remain in control over their education system.