Ontario’s education debate has turned into a circus of receipts and hotel bills while classrooms quietly struggle under the weight of chronic underfunding. Education Minister Paul Calandra’s fixation on trustees’ expenses—Apple Watch straps, phone chargers, even a milkshake or two—makes for splashy headlines, but it does little to help the students sitting in overcrowded classrooms or teachers juggling ballooning costs.
The numbers tell a sobering story. Just a few years ago, most school boards reported healthy surpluses. In 2020-21, 61 of Ontario’s 72 boards were in the black, posting a net surplus of over $200 million. Fast forward to today and that picture has flipped: last year, the boards collectively faced a nearly $200 million deficit. Projections show the problem isn’t going away. This isn’t a sudden epidemic of fiscal mismanagement—it’s the predictable result of funding that hasn’t kept pace with inflation and enrolment growth.
Yet the minister has chosen to focus on trustees’ expense reports, demanding repayment of a few thousand dollars in gadgets and supplies, while dismissing the bigger crisis. It’s a classic distraction tactic. If we’re talking about Apple TV subscriptions, we’re not talking about special-education programs stretched to the breaking point, or the rising costs of pensions and unemployment insurance that boards can’t simply wish away.
Critics, including NDP education critic Chandra Pasma and the Ontario Public School Boards Association, have it right: this is a funding problem, not a management one. Even with the government touting a “record” $30.3 billion education budget, boards are facing a $404 per-student funding gap compared to 2018. That’s the math families feel when programs are cut and supports for vulnerable students disappear.
Parents and taxpayers deserve accountability, but accountability should start at Queen’s Park. Micromanaging trustee expense claims may score political points, but it won’t put more resources in classrooms or stem the tide of deficits. If the Ford government truly wants to restore confidence in public education, it should stop the sideshow and start matching funding to the real costs of running Ontario’s schools.
