Ontario won’t have charter schools, board closings or mergers, pledges education minister

Posted on December 6, 2025 in Education Policy Context

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TheStar.com – Politics/Provincial
Dec. 5, 2025.   By Kristin Rushowy, Senior Writer

Calandra says education governance reforms will be announced in the new year.

No school boards will be shut down or merged — and the Catholic system is here to stay.

Education Minister Paul Calandra said Friday that he “wanted to be very clear” on what changes may or may not be coming to the province’s school system.

“There will be no closing of school boards in whatever we do — we’re not closing school boards,” he said in Ottawa following a $162 million construction funding announcement. “We’re not amalgamating school boards. I’m not bringing in charter schools. I’m not merging the public system and the Catholic system together.

“That is not going to happen in the province of Ontario.”

Calandra, who is looking at revamping education governance, said those reforms will be announced in the new year.

Critics have accused the government of trying to distract from real issues facing schools, by taking over six boards for financial or governance troubleswhen provincial funding doesn’t match their actual costs, and by introducing new legislation giving the minister expanded powers.

While Calandra is considering eliminating the role of elected trustees in the public system, he said Catholic and French trustees will remain in some form.

“I will be a fierce, fierce protector of the constitutional and Charter rights, both of the Catholic and of the French systems,” he said. “I think they are an integral part of delivering a very good education system in the province of Ontario.”

However, he added, “that does not mean that there can’t be changes in the governance structure.”

Kathleen Woodcock, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, has stressed the important role trustees play and that “democracy is not outdated … It’s how we make sure every community has a say in shaping the schools that shape our kids.”

Elected trustees “mean open meetings, transparent budgets and accountability you can see,” she added. “Eliminating them silences the only direct, elected voice families have in public education. Once that’s gone — it’s gone for good.”

Calandra initially signalled he would announce any governance changes before the end of this year, but has since said more time is needed to ensure constitutional issues are fully addressed.

When it comes to public board trustees, “I could strike a pen tomorrow and rid myself of all of them in one fell swoop, if I wanted to. But that’s not the case right now — even in the supervised boards, the Catholic trustees and supervised boards still exist. They deal with denominational issues, and that will always be the case. And the French board also has their guarantees, and we will absolutely honour that.”

Should the province eliminate trustees in the public system, it is unclear how it would operate — or explain — two different systems where French and Catholic parents have access to elected officials, but public school parents do not.

NDP education critic Chandra Pasma accused Calandra of showing “utter contempt for the rights of parents and local communities to have a say in our schools … suggesting that he can wipe out elected trustees with the stroke of a pen is deeply disrespectful and undermines community-based decision-making in education.”

She said parents and students “deserve a voice — not top-down control from a politician.”

The minister has already ordered boards to open parent support offices to help families navigate the system and escalate any concerns they feel aren’t adequately addressed by their child’s school.

Calandra said he hopes “to be in a better position early in the new year to put some clarity” on what reforms and legislation will be introduced.

But he said nothing has convinced him that the ”$43 billion Ministry of Education budget should be delivered by trustees across the province of Ontario.”

Charter schools are controversial in Canada, and generally opposed by teacher unions, as they are seen to divert funding away from public schools. In Alberta, they are a part of the public system and tuition-free, but operate with more independence than mainstream schools.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/promise-on-charter-schools/article_7ce5fae1-b18e-449e-af43-2c233d278ea5.html

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