FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday June 30th, 2025
(TORONTO, ON) – On Friday, June 27th, Conservative Education Minister Paul Calandra appointed Supervisors to the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, and 2 other Boards.
These authoritarian takeovers continue the government diversion campaign against their dramatic underfunding of public education, threatening current and future Boards who refuse to cut further.
The Province has cut public education in Ontario by $6.3 billion since 2018 when adjusted for inflation and enrollment. The erosion of our public education system has been significant: larger class sizes, less support for special education programs, cuts to outdoor education, and never enough human resources to meet the needs.
“The cuts to our schools since this government came to power in 2018 have created such a deterioration of working and learning conditions. Why should our students have to go without the basics like special education supports and music programs? Why should they be subjected to classrooms like saunas every time the heat soars?” said Elementary Teacher of Toronto President, Helen Victoros. “Boards have been rightfully pushing back against years of underfunding and being told by the province to make cuts. Now they’re being punished for it.”
The government has ordered the takeovers under the false guise of fiscal mismanagement.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers report into TDSB financial management states (page 61): “Throughout the work conducted we did not find any examples of reckless or deliberate wrongdoing, lack of financial oversight or governance or actions resulting in potential reputational damage.”
And the Ontario Auditor General report released in December 2024 points to the actual problem: financial challenges associated with a provincial funding formula that doesn’t meet the fixed costs of running the Board.
Today’s takeover announcement continues the governments campaign to gut education with a simple message: fight back and we’ll take you over.
For more information, visit www.fundourschools.ca.
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Jennifer Huang
Toronto & York Region Labour Council
[email protected]
416-886-4082
