The PC Ontario is to take over the school boards.
About time, or another show!
The news of the Ontario PC taking over the financial operation of some school boards in Ontario has created a buzz in the media. Some are hopeful and are embracing this move as a long overdue attempt to bring back some sanity and order to our public education. Some are screaming overreach and power grab. Some see this as getting schools in order- to put it bluntly- getting the drugs, violence, profanity, and uncivil behavior out of the schools and, with any luck, turning the school back to a rather decent space of learning! Too much to expect, eh! It should not be. Not when we are the ones paying for it.
Ontario education is in a mess (as are our many other public sectors), has been in a mess, and the PCs have known about it all along. They even contributed to the mess—or at the very least, did nothing to stop it. So, what’s behind the sudden interest?
When, in February 2025, Mr. Ford pulled a Trudeau move and played one of the oldest tricks in the book by calling a snap election under the excuse of a foreign threat. I reached out to my PC MPP and the Minister of Education -past and present- to express my disappointment with the state of education in Ontario after eight years of PC government.
Below is a list of items I brought to their attention—again and again—to no avail. This is yet another show, though hardly an enticing one. The Minister of Education needs to address the guidelines that have allowed publicly funded school systems to become dominated by despicable issues, become useless, and, as some say, turn into shit shows. Yes, they have the power to do that; they are the ones who led us to this stage!
It’s no wonder that I share Igor Stravinsky’s cynicism when he doubts that what truly needs to be addressed, resolved, replaced, and reformed will ever take place.
____________________________________________________________________________
Feb 19/2025
Minister of Education- past & present- and Honourable MPP….
As we are nearing the Provincial election, I must be candid about my deep disappointment with the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, particularly regarding how the PC majority government has handled Ontario’s public education.
I’m sure you and your office staff remember the 44 emails I sent to your office, following your instructions after we met on Friday, September 2, 2022. I do not doubt that you kept your promise and delivered them to Minister Lecce; however, none of them have been addressed. I have been asked why I bother to send another email. Hope is my answer.
Please do not forget that public education is the foundation of any society. It shapes the next generation who will make decisions for our province and our great nation. This is why the current state of our education system is so concerning, as it has profound implications for the future of our society.
To put a few major issues in point form:
Ontario's Progressive Conservative government has been too progressive and not conservative enough, especially regarding education. When it comes to our social issues, it is difficult to distinguish the PCs from the LP/NDP.
With a majority government, the PC had six years to address the radical leftist agenda and the "woke" madness dominating our schools. They didn’t—and, in many ways, they made it worse.
The PC promised to repeal Kathleen Wynne’s sex-ed curriculum as part of their election platform—but they failed to do so. On July 16, 2018, Lisa Thompson, the Minister of Education, stated that their government believes students need to learn about gender identities. The PC has been just as "woke" as the other parties.
When Premier Ford announced the last school lockdown on January 3, 2022, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce was not even present during the announcement. He appeared in the media later, and the comment people made was, "Nice tan!" It is difficult to trust the person in charge of our education system when they are absent during such an important announcement, with no explanation given.
That Jan 3/ 2022, lockdown was announced after schools had already implemented necessary and recommended health measures. The negative impact of online learning and school closures was disastrous.
The pandemic measures - online learning- also proved that PC Ontario’s plan to implement a mandatory 2 online credits for high school students was wrong.
Over the past six years, many grassroots groups of parents and educators were formed, pressuring the PC government. The response in 2023 was Bill 98, but the PC has not used this bill to make meaningful changes.
The de-streaming of our secondary education was a predictable failure. Anyone with any sense could see that this system would lead to a diluted, dumbed-down education and is yet another leftist move to control the population.
School boards in Ontario have policies that clearly instruct staff to withhold information from parents—essentially, to lie to the parents. This is a betrayal of trust and completely unacceptable.
The Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) has been leading the way in shaping the current state of education, including promoting CRT, DEI, gender ideology, and even drag queens in schools. The OCT is a creation of the Ontario government, so the government has the power to dismantle it. Yet, they remain silent or make excuses.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission has explicitly adopted the Critical Race Theory. As a result, other institutions in Ontario, including those in education, have developed guidelines to align with the OHRC, leading to the widespread implementation of DEI initiatives. The OHRC is also a creation of the Ontario government, so the politically correct Ontario government surely has the power to address these issues or even dismantle the OHRC. To provide context, only white people are unable to claim racist actions against them, which in itself is a form of racism. Many of the guidelines implemented at Ontario schools that are divisive and have contributed to the broken social structure are based on the Ontario Human Rights Commission policies.
The teacher education program in Ontario was dominated by leftist ideas even as early as 2004 and probably much earlier. In 2015, the program was expanded to two years. This two-year program now produces teachers who will implement far-left ideologies, with an increased focus on promoting a wide range of genders and identities. The PC government continued to support and carry out this scheme.
Minister Lecce enacted Kathleen Wynne’s race-based reporting after the pandemic. He didn’t have to—but as a result, bad behaviour is being buried or even justified because people are afraid to speak the truth, fearing being labelled as racist. Even the best schools have become inappropriate entertainment centers, with students wandering the hallways, swearing at staff, and engaging in violence. Etc.
The rise of antisemitism in our schools is directly tied to the woke-leftist-Marxist group identity and DEI agendas. Six years under the PC majority and our schools have become even more radical.
On June 6, 2024, Mr. Todd Smith was appointed Minister of Education, succeeding Mr. Stephen Lecce, who, I assume, wanted out and no wonder. Mr. Smith’s wife, Tawnya C. Smith (she/her), an administrator in educational institutions, feels the need to add pronouns to her name and use rainbow colours in her profile. Need I say more?
On July 25, 2023, the Education Minister Mr. Lecce ordered a review into the allegations related to Richard Bilkszto’s death and his lawsuit. However, we have yet to hear any report on the said review. During this time, countless articles have been written that directly or indirectly mention Richard and the way he was treated because of his skin colour by another licensed educator. Every few days, I receive a message from another colleague with a link to another publication with the message: "Mentions Richard."
We have an expensive publicly funded education system with troublingly low results. No industry would continue investing in something that is not producing results.
Our schools are hiring and promoting based on race, gender, and other self-made divisive group identities, and their student admission for specialized programs based on merit, competency, and aptitude has become non-existent.
Under the PC majority, school board trustees have been reprimanded simply for expressing opinions of their constituency that differed from the school board’s ideologies.
Under the PC majority, teachers have been sent on home assignments, because they express views, or shared concerns regarding the explicitly sexual, age-inappropriate material in school libraries, and other reasons such as asking to treat people equally ( not based on their race).
Ontario schools are no longer teaching students to appreciate or respect their country; instead, they are embedding a sense of guilt about land occupation in the minds of our students from an early age.
The grade 11 English course has been replaced with grade 11 Indigenous Studies, which students say has no tests, no essays, and no exams! Though there is some merit in offering this course, it could have been offered as an optional instead of tossing out English.
Grades are inflated and do not reflect the students' learning- also a betrayal of trust.
Elementary school teachers say that they are not allowed to report low grades.
Ontario schools are changing the names of schools that were once named after the great men and women who founded this nation and built the lives we live today. Surely, the Ontario government has the power to put a stop to this. However, there has not even been a reaction from Premier Ford. As the saying goes, destroy a nation’s history, destroy a nation.
In Ontario schools, the Black National Anthem has become a thing! This is racist.
The self-flagellating Land Acknowledgement not only takes precedence over our National Anthem, but it is also recited at every meeting, presentation, parent council, and so on as if it were the Lord’s Prayer.
Cell phone use in schools continues despite the announcement of a policy. What is the point of making such an announcement without a system in place to enforce and control it? Where is the credibility in that?
The teachers' unions are under siege by the far left, using their influence to promote a radical agenda. Teachers are not allowed to work unless they are part of the unions. As a result, Ontario students are both undereducated and indoctrinated. Given that education is a provincial matter, to my knowledge, the PC has done little to bring neutrality into the equation.
The school board meetings have become a partisan circus of representatives playing UN by proxy and discussing and debating on foreign policies which seem to lean towards the radical left.
School board trustees- far from remaining non-partisan and representing all of their constituents- use their Trustee social media to weigh in on political and geopolitical issues clearly taking sides.
Sadly, the list goes on. If the Ontario government is unaware of them, it undermines their credibility; if they are aware, their silence makes them complicit in the destruction of our public education, further eroding their credibility.
The PC knows that we are stuck between the PC Ontario whose report card on education has been a failure, has given into the radical left, has played both ways, and the psychopaths who will protect the drag queens from parents! Therefore, the PC Ontario does not seem to be motivated enough to let go of the progressive side of the party. There is no nation with a broken social structure that has a strong economy. Our social structure is broken, and as a result, our economy is negatively affected.
The PC must be proactive, take preventative measures, and plan for the future with foresight, rather than reacting with mandates that are simply addressed as checkboxes in our education system. Toward the end of his tenure, Minister Lecce attempted to make some positive changes, including initiatives like Back to Basics, Cursive Handwriting, PD presentations, Holocaust education, and vetting school field trips. However, these initiatives were reactionary, long overdue, and should have been fundamental to education from the time Premier Ford took office.
The PC in Ontario must uphold Conservative values. Attempting to appease the vocal and destructive far-left voters by giving in to their agendas will only result in a loss of credibility and trust among Conservatives. We need the PC Ontario to be bold, brave, and do more than cheap talk.
The takeover of education systems to implement a radical communist, Marxist, and fundamentalist agenda of population control began in the 1960s. If there is any hope for the Western world, it lies in reclaiming the education system.
Would you, this time, do something about this? Or are we, conservatives, just naively hopeful?
Sincerely
_______________
Post notes: Why do I bother?
I have been asked why I bother. Hope has been my answer.
But more than that, fear is my motivation. I am terrified of what lies ahead.