education in crisis: what ottawa's school board chaos reveals about ontario's future
Education is one of the most powerful tools we have in this world.
It is the ultimate game changer. It is the predicator for better health outcomes. Education has the power to move income quintiles. It can reduce youth homelessness and reunite families. Education can lift people out of poverty. There is no shortage of research to show that when a child has a stable and consistent education, it has the power to change the trajectory of their life.
Yet despite these well-documented benefits, our education system, particularly here in Ontario, is falling apart.
What is happening right here in my hometown of Ottawa is a prime example. I have been one of hundreds of parents actively advocating against a deeply flawed attempt at systems change in our publicly funded school board: Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB).
In 2024, the OCDSB launched a consultation on an Elementary School Review. At the time, there was little shared with parents about the massive deficit the school board was running. Instead, it focused on very broad questions about what we would like to see in future programming and what was important to us.
When the first iteration of the proposal was released in January. It spoke about scaling back special needs classes and completely eliminating our Alternative Schools. Extremely concerning concepts for our community. There were also some important principles about equitable access to French immersion for all students and community-based schools in the proposal. Unfortunately, however, these principles have been overshadowed by the poor implementation, namely introducing new boundaries at the end of February (originally with only three weeks of consultation after their release including March Break) which caused completely chaos throughout the system.
Throughout the process, however, there has been a lack of transparency, data, analysis, and genuine consultation. The proposal, was initially pitched as having "no Plan B." Concessions have been made, there has been a revised proposal, but it is still not better.
There is no costing. The implementation plan is limited. Parents are expected to trust that this will all work out. "It will come later," we are told. It is slated to only take 12 months from conception to full execution while dealing with one of the most vulnerable populations in our city: our elementary aged children.
To say that it has been wildly disconcerting would be an understatement. Furthermore, the merits of the proposal - equity and community based schooling - the very things that parents could get behind are now behind used against them by Trustees and the OCDSB.
Despite what some Trustees may believe, many of us recognize our privilege. Many of us are doing their work to surface the voices of all parents.
I know that my children have options. I know that if there comes a point where I think this is all as batshit crazy as it sounds and I need to get them out, I can. It is also not lost on me that there have been very few times as a parent that I have been made to feel uncomfortable within the education system. Sure, I have had to advocate for my kids within their school, but this is also been the first time that I have had to advocate because I am worried that the changes being made to the education system may cause harm to my children (and their peers whom I also care about). This discomfort I'm experiencing temporarily is what many marginalized communities face constantly within our education system.
A History of Educational Harm
I think about First Nation, Inuit and Metis peoples, who for generations have been victimized in the name of education in Canada. Residential schools were used as a means to try to extinguish a population of people and culture in North America. Government policy aimed to "remove the Indian from the child." This resulted in thousands of deaths, family separations, lost culture and trauma - the scale of which will forever remain immeasurable. Despite the damage caused to generations of Indigenous peoples, education, and the need to continue to learn from the wrongs of our past, is what has started to allow Canada to emerge from this dark colonial history.
The Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair noted "that it was education that got us into this mess, it is education that will get us out of it." Sinclair knew the power of education. And yet, paradoxically, as a society, we are willing to accept that education is most precarious for those students who are most marginalized.
The Inequitable Impact of Educational Shortfalls
Children who live in poverty are typically not exposed to the same level of stimulation before starting school and there for their readiness for school is often lower, demonstrated through limited vocabulary and communication skills, and a lower ability to concentrate and play cooperatively with other children. Once they arrive at school, their ability to achieve academically also tends to be lower than children from higher socio-economic families. Factors include not only cognitive and academic outcomes, but also social, emotional and measures as well. One in five children were living in poverty in Ontario in 2022.
The challenges multiply when we consider intersecting identities. Racialized and Indigenous students face higher rates of racial profiling within the school system, which results in higher rates of suspension and lower rates of academic achievement. Ultimately, this leads to visible minority students entering post-secondary education at lower levels than non-visible minorities. This is only compounded for racialized communities. Census data from 2021 demonstrated that the poverty rate among Indigenous children in Ontario was nearly double that of non-Indigenous children. In terms of data on visible minorities: 14.7% of racialized children and 19.2% of immigrant children under 18 lived in poverty in Ontario.
The education system similarly fails our 2SLGBTQ+ youth. In Canadian schools, 2SLGBTQ+ students face higher rates of stigma, harassment and violence and often report feeling unsafe at school. 2SLGBTQ+ youth are at elevated risk for mental health difficulties and suicidality compared with their cisgender heterosexual peers. However, when LGBTQ youth experience safe and supportive schools, and supportive families, they are much less likely to report these health challenges. In fact, in 2021 Egale conducted a survey with Canadian youth in grades 8-12 that found that 2SLGBTQ+ youth with supportive adults both inside and outside the home were FOUR TIMES more likely to have feelings of good or excellent mental health.
Perhaps most visibly in the current crisis in Ottawa are students with special needs. Students in Ottawa and across Ontario are routinely being excluded from classrooms because of a shortage of staff. I have heard stories of children who are only able to attend school part of the day because of a lack of funding for Educational Assistants. Despite being told repeatedly in Ottawa through the Elementary Program Review that the OCDSB spends more than its allocation for special needs programming, there are still not enough resources (and its not only Ottawa). As a result, people with disabilities continue to have lower rates of educational attainment because we as a society continue to fail them. I have sat through countless OCDSB meetings listening to brave parents share stories of their exceptional children, so now I see faces behind numbers. I carry Max, Tessa, Kyle, and Travis and their stories with me.
The Policy Argument for Education
So if there is an ABUNDANCE of research that shows that education can change the trajectory of someone's life, why are we not doubling down on that?
Instead, in Ontario, we have seeing successive cuts to education since 2018. Whether it be funding cuts to education at the Primary, Secondary and Post-Secondary levels; increases to class sizes at the Primary and Secondary levels; elimination of free tuition for low income student which has driven up student debt; or a reliance on international students - we are slowly dismantling the education system.
This pre-dates the current Government. The system was not in the best of shape when they arrived in office in 2018. To be clear, the McGuinty-Wynn Governments were doing what they could to resuscitate the education system they had inherited from the Harris days. While they made strides, substantial work was still needed. The state of education in this province has been in disarray for decades.
Yet the evidence for investing in education is so overwhelming I often wonder how it is not a bipartisan issue. In addition to the social factors identified already, there is also a solid economic argument for the investment in education.
A report from the Conference Board of Education (2019) indicated that increases in public education spending, could lift Ontario's high school graduation rates to 90% (matching the highest in the country) and result in a savings of $16.4M per year. Each additional high school graduate SAVES the Ontario government an average of $2,767 each year in social assistance, health care, and criminal justice expenses compared to someone who does not complete high school who COSTS the province $3,128 each year.
A Word of Caution
As others look to Ottawa from around the province, I understand that the OCDSB is not alone in this struggle. Similar program reviews and restructuring efforts are happening across Ontario as boards grapple with financial shortfalls. According to recent data from the Ontario Public School Boards' Association, 48 of Ontario's 72 publicly funded school boards are currently operating with deficits, representing two-thirds of all boards in the province. The total deficit across these boards has reached an alarming $425 million for the 2023-2024 school year.
If you're a parent elsewhere in Ontario reading this and thinking "this couldn't happen here," consider this your warning. The financial pressures forcing these drastic changes in Ottawa are likely brewing in your district as well. I should have been paying closer attention.
What we're experiencing in Ottawa today may be coming to your community tomorrow unless we collectively demand better funding for education across the province.
A Personal Perspective
I understand these issues not just as policy matters but through personal experience. Both of my parents were raised by single mothers. My dad was working at 16 to support his family while still finishing high school. Neither of my parents went to post-secondary education, yet they instilled in me and my brother the value of education as the pathway to greater opportunity. University was hardly a choice in our home, it was the expectation. As an adult now, I am immensely grateful for that.
I am very concerned about the future of our public education in this province. The more I dig in, the more that I fear that we are moving towards a two-tired model akin to the British system which will only widen inequity.
We stand at a critical juncture.
Education defines our potential for innovation, economic growth, and social progress in Ontario. When we don't invest in education, we are limit the futures of countless children who deserve better.
At a local level, I am urging the OCDSB to slow down. There are processes - like the Pupil Accommodation Review - in place that guide significant changes like this for a reason. While you may be right that you meet the threshold for an exemption because you have managed to manipulate the changes accordingly, it does not mean that it is the right approach.
There are the hundreds of parents who are willing to work with you to implement a solution that is truly community-based and makes sense school-by-school. Let us help you achieve your goals of equity and inclusion without alienating children and families.
At the provincial level, we desperately need to rethink our plan for education. It is not too late to turn this ship around. Investing in education today, equates to jobs and long-term prosperity for Ontario tomorrow.
The children of Ontario deserve an education system that recognizes their inherent worth and potential. They deserve a future where education remains what it has always been meant to be: the great equalizer, the path to possibility, the ultimate game changer.
