Break up the TDSB? Wynne should know better

On Friday, the provincial government released Barbara Hall’s report on the Toronto District School Board that warns trustees to fix the board or watch it get dismantled. Former TDSB trustee and current premier Kathleen Wynne hasn’t commented on the report, but it’s easy to surmise what her response would have been 10 years ago.

While Barbara Hall’s report provides some recommendations that are worth investigating, her recommendations to stifle democracy at the school board and her refusal to even comment on the funding concerns raised by parents at her consultations would have appalled the Trustee Wynne of the early 2000s. (I say this as someone who, in the early 2000s, volunteered with the Toronto Parent Network, the advocacy group Kathleen Wynne had founded.)

As an example of dysfunction at the TDSB, Barbara Hall cites the 2002 refusal by the board to cut $84 million in staff and programs in order to balance the budget. The refusal led to the board being put under supervision by the Conservative government of the day. Ironically, Trustee Kathleen Wynne was one of the leaders in the fight against making the cuts, and campaigned on that fight to become a Liberal MPP in 2003.

Unfortunately since then the cuts have continued. The provincial funding formula has led to 17 continuous years of cuts to staff and programs at the TDSB and to many boards across the province.

Trustee Wynne would also have been appalled with Hall’s understanding of the democratic role of board trustees. The election of trustees, Hall notes in her report, is the oldest form of democracy in Ontario and dates back to 1816. But Hall criticizes trustees for merely fulfilling the duties of elected officials. According to Hall, trustees spend time “responding to endless telephone calls and emails from constituents.” As a former mayor, I’m surprised that Hall doesn’t recognize that responding to constituents’ concerns is an essential job for any elected official.

Hall also criticizes parents for expecting trustees “to be in schools regularly, talking to students and staff,” but she doesn’t say how trustees could make informed decisions at the board if they didn’t know what was happening in schools.

Hall decries the “jockeying among the 22 trustees to get a 12-trustee majority onside to support an item coming before the board.” But this is part of the democratic process. All elected officials have discussions with their colleagues trying to sway them to their view of an issue. Through discussions with her colleagues, the old Kathleen Wynne led a majority of trustees not to make the cuts in 2002.

Hall rightly criticizes the board for “bullying and infighting between and among senior-level staff and trustees.” In the last board, a feud erupted between two small groups of trustees with their allied senior staff. The feud was fought out in the media with each side thinking they were hurting their opponents, but instead they were hurting the reputation of the board and by extension caused people to start questioning whether we still need elected school boards.

“Bullying and infighting” does not belong in any level of government. The board’s new governance policy, the new integrity commissioner and oversight from the provincial ombudsperson will provide recourse should this ever happen again.

One of the strengths of democracy is that every four years there’s an opportunity for renewal. In the 2014 municipal election, 11 new trustees were elected to the TDSB, and a 12th will be elected in an upcoming byelection. Forty-four per cent of Torontonians participated in the election of trustees — only slightly less than the 55 per cent who voted for the mayor and city councillors.

The board now has a new chairperson and vice chair, and will soon have a new director.

Barbara Hall recommends sending in a supervisor to take over the board from the elected trustees. But this would be an insult to the hundreds of thousands of voters who elected a new board in 2014.

Trustee Kathleen Wynne would be appalled at the recommendation to override the very democratic tools that she used to protect programs for students in 2002. We’ll have to wait and see what Premier Kathleen Wynne will do.