Die Ford -Regierung übernimmt vier Schulbehörden – darunter Toronto Public und Catholic – wegen mutmaßlicher finanzieller Misswirtschaft – thestar.com

While I have considerable skepticism regarding the Ford government when it comes to education, I’ve long believed that local elected school boards as financial managers was a bad idea. The management of such large and complex organizations are not realistically within the likely competence of a group of part timers on five figure salaries, even if some are intelligent and dedicated public servants.

Managing contractors and suppliers and providing oversight is not something you need a separate body for, and the trustee elections do not usually attract sufficient engagement to say that we are gaining the benefit of special, extra democratic oversight.

It’s also a good moment to remember the foolishness of having two separate boards with parallel bureaucracies so one of them can peddle a warmed-over, half-hearted version of almost Catholicism to the students on the government dime. It’s a luxury that clearly we are not in a fiscal position to provide.