FCSS-FESC Response To Bill 197 and Proposed Changes to the Education Act

Bill 197 is an omnibus bill which proposes to amend 20 pieces of legislation under the guise of “COVID-19 Economic Recovery.” With no public consultation and minimum debate in the Ontario Provincial Legislature, the government’s proposed bill limits public opportunity to consider or weigh in on the proposed legislative changes. Read to find out how Bill 197 amends the Education Act in several troubling ways.

On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, Bill 197 was introduced by the Government of Ontario; an omnibus bill which proposes to amend 20 pieces of legislation under the guise of “COVID-19 Economic Recovery.” With no public consultation and minimum debate in the Ontario Provincial Legislature, the government’s proposed bill limits public opportunity to consider or weigh in on the proposed legislative changes — which are significant to say the least.

While Bill 197 will have deleterious effects on Ontario’s environmental regulations¹, the bill also amends the Education Act in several troubling ways. Below we outline the three major amendments to the Education Act and the FCSS-FESC’s position on the matter:

The first proposed change is to remove the requirement that Directors of Education, the individuals responsible for the administrative functioning and executive oversight of school boards in Ontario, must have been previously qualified as teachers.² The FCSS-FESC does not support this decision for the following reasons:

• This allows individuals who have no experience in the classroom or in a learning environment to be in a position to make vital decisions about the education that thousands of students receive.
• Individuals who, due to their lack of experience and understanding of the educational system, likely lack the understanding of how certain changes affect different student populations, specifically students who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) or 2SLGBTQIA+.

The Bill then reads that Sections 185 and 188 of the Education Act are amended to allow individuals who are not the caregivers of a student to provide written notice to the board about the school that the student intends to attend.³ The FCSS-FESC does not support this decision due to the following reasons:

• This amendment makes it optional to seek parental consent in order for any prescribed government individual to make a decision pertaining to the school a student attends, allowing for unexpected changes.
• Sudden and unexpected school changes would likely be detrimental to a student’s education and well-being.
• This is not the first incident that such a practice was implemented in Canada’s education system as the Canadian residential school system, which can be traced back to the 1830’s, also did not require parental consent to relocate Indigenous children to a residential school.
• Residential schools took away the right for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people in Canada to educate their own youth or have a say in their education, allowing the system to take generations upon generations of Indigenous children to schools that worked to erase Indigenous language, culture, and practices.⁵
• While the amendment is not on the same scale as the Residential School system, the power allowed by this law can be potentially abused to similar effects, and the Government’s insistence on this amendment is troubling.

The last amendment proposed as part of Bill 197 states that “pupils in specified grades of elementary school shall not be suspended, or that such suspensions may only occur in the prescribed circumstances.”⁶ The FCSS-FESC supports this delayed, but necessary, change to place new restrictions on suspensions:

• The practice of expulsion and suspension has been reportedly found to disproportionately affect students who are Black.
• According to Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce,”[r]emoving suspensions for students from those grades will ’empower all children to achieve their potential.'”⁷
• This change is but one step towards fighting the systemic racism present within the education system.

While the FCSS-FESC supports the new restrictions on suspensions, we believe that most of the amendments proposed by Bill 197 under the guise of economic recovery, particularly those that seek to change the Education Act, are an attempt by the government to impose policies that can dangerously impact students and even exacerbate the discrimination various groups of students face.

References:

(1)Bell, A. (2020, July 17). Omnibus Bill 197: What you need to know. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://ontarionature.org/omnibus-bill-197-what-you-need-to-know/?fbclid=IwAR0tMe8UXhLbxwC3M8fr1DO_jwa6jrZoKVdkbDOqtF1A66m61CinKzgMWiA

(2, 3, 6) COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, 2020. (n.d.). Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-197

(4, 5)Residential Schools in Canada. (October 10, 2012). Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools

(7)Staff, N. (2020, July 06). Ontario to ban suspensions for children in Grade 3 and below in efforts to rid education system of racism. Retrieved July 18, 2020, from https://nationalpost.com/news/students

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