Tasha Kheiriddin: Province must step in to fix what ails the TDSB
He also introduced Bill 33, the supporting children and students act, which would allow the government to take over boards for any reason that serves the public interest — a catch-all that could include governance issues like those at the TDSB.
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If the province does step in, it must do more than make cosmetic changes. One goal should be to empower parents to participate directly in school-board decision-making. The current 'parent concern protocol' requires parents who have an issue with their school to go through four layers in sequence: the teacher, the principal, the superintendent and the trustee. This process means that problems often take far too long to resolve — or get blocked and never addressed.
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Legislated channels for parent engagement already exist under the Education Act, by way of parent involvement committees. The minister must ensure that those channels can no longer be stymied by staff. They should be strengthened to ensure that parents have a real seat at the table, whether it is set by boards or by the government directly.
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This government, and this minister, have shown they are willing to act. The time has come to confront not just mismanagement, but the structural failings of our educational governance model. As the fight for Barrie Sketchley makes plain, people should come before process. It's time to give parents a voice in Ontario schools.
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