Michael Zwaagstra Calls for Ford Government to Implement Bold Reforms in Education
Commentary
When treating sick patients, should doctors take bold action, or should they take a wait and see approach?
The answer is: it depends.
If the illness is minor, then prescribing chicken soup and bedrest makes sense. However, if the patient has a rapidly growing cancerous tumour, more drastic action such as surgery is probably required.
Declining math and literacy test scores,
bloated school board bureaucracies,
woke ideology being taught in many classrooms, and ongoing school-based
violence are but a few of the symptoms.
Given these serious problems in Ontario schools, it’s disappointing that Ford’s government has chosen to tinker around the edges rather than take bold action. No matter what the crisis is, the Ontario government has failed to take the necessary steps to address them.
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egregious case, last month several schools in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) took their students, some as young as eight-years-old, on a field trip where the students were encouraged to recite anti-Israel slogans such as “From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime.”
investigation into TDSB’s field trip policy. Parents were hopeful that was a sign that the minister would root out this problem and ensure that this never happens again.
Unfortunately, rather than appoint a true outsider to conduct the investigation, Dunlop picked an assistant deputy minister in the Ministry of Education that was responsible for the ministry’s equity secretariat. There’s nothing in his background suggesting he will take a broad independent view of how to reform the province’s ailing education system.
ignoring clear directives from her department, the education minister should
dissolve these boards. No students or parents will miss the bevy of superintendents, equity directors, learning coaches and cultural advisors. In fact, eliminating all these bureaucrats would allow for more education dollars to flow to the classrooms where they’re best used for students.
blowing $38,000 on a three-day professional development retreat in Toronto or about school trustees spending $45,000 on a
trip to Italy and then purchasing $100,000 of artwork while there.
school choice comparable to that enjoyed by parents in Quebec and western Canada. If parents can transfer their children to any independent school of their choice with at least some provincial funding following them, they will be empowered to do what’s in their best interests.
confusing and incoherent curriculum guides teachers must use currently.
Setting clearer standards and measuring results regularly with provincial standardized tests is also an important accountability mechanism—both for the province and for parents and their children. The province must know how schools are doing so it can target supports to underperforming schools while parents need this information so they can make an informed decision about where to send their children.
It’s often said that insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. When it comes to education, the Ford government has done the same thing repeatedly for far too long. It’s time for something different.
Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
