ARE ONTARIO SCHOOL BOARDS AN EXPENSIVE ANACHRONISM?

Today I received an e-mail from the Society for Quality Education (SQE). They have been involved in the school "wars" literally for decades and are an articulate critic of our education system. The particular report I wish to comment on was written by Malkin Dare and is titled "School Boards: An expensive Anachronism". Her report is a summary of a forensic audit done by auditors Ernst and Young on the Toronto District School Board. This report was commissioned by the Ontario government and is included in full by Malkin Dare. The results are disturbing as Ernst and Young catalogued financial anomalies, conflicts of interest and also most interestingly an "atmosphere of fear" was described by some management, staff and Trustees. I guess as I've long suspected these school anti-bullying campaigns are for the students not the School Board themselves. According to Ernst and Young "Pressure is sometimes put on staff not to comply with set policies and some employees fear their employment may be terminated if they refuse to do as requested. We found examples of this type of pressure.'. For me this speaks volumes about these empires populated by little human beings lacking transparency, accountability and basic decency.