Quebec English school boards

January 22, 2019

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The Equity

Dear Editor,
The recently reported call by Education Minister Jean-François Roberge for an inquiry into the conduct of the English Montreal School Board brings to mind your editorial following the election win of the Coalition Avenir Quebec: “What will CAQ policies look like?” (Oct. 10, 2018).
Recall that the CAQ’s education plan stated, “Our goal will be to modernize this system by transforming these outdated structures (school boards) into service centres for schools, organizations whose mission is to support schools rather than run them directly.”

To which, the editorial said the term “service centres” evokes images of “getting an oil change more than sending your kids to school.” That may be so, but if one looks to any school board website, the term “Student Services” is followed by all the services offered to students.
At any rate, here’s the latest:
The Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) has set up a committee “to maintain school boards in Quebec.” The committee called ‘APPELE-Québec’ (Alliance for the Promotion of Public English-language Education in Quebec), consists of the Quebec Community Groups Network, the English Parents’ Committee Association and the Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations.
This is similar to what QESBA initiated 2.5 years ago, in its battle against the Liberal government school board reform Bill 86, which also called for ditching school board elections in favour of local democracy at the school level.
Education Minister Jean-François Roberge has said he’s willing to listen to suggestions concerning the CAQ school governance plan.
Rather than fight, why not expend our energy, save time and money and take advantage of the offer?
Let’s pick the better features of Bill 86 of the Couillard government, who were voted in by 1.7M voters in 2014 and combine them with what the (2018) Legault government is proposing.
After all, more than 3.2M Quebecers cast their ballots for the aforementioned majority governments with clear mandates to deal with much-needed school board reform.

Chris Eustace
Montreal, Que.

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