Ford-Calandra School Board Take-overs are Land-grabs

 

From Education Action:

For years, this government has starved public education of funding. They’ve ripped $6 billion out of our schools since 2018. They’ve forced larger class sizes, stripped special education supports, and left students and staff to deal with unsafe, crumbling learning environments.

Now, rather than admit the damage they’ve caused, Ford and Education Minister Paul Calandra are grabbing more power — rewriting the rules so they can take control of school boards, muzzle parents and trustees, and force through their own agenda.

Let’s be clear: their agenda has nothing to do with student success. This is about money and control — and, most of all, real estate. The Ministry has given the job of supervising the TDSB to Rohit Gupta, someone with no known experience managing anything related to public education. He is the senior managing partner of Harrington Place Advisors.  Harrington Place describes itself as “bridging public and private sector priorities” by “unearthing latent demand and identifying high value opportunities for public sector assets. He has a background in working with the federal government regarding public-private-partnerships as well as in mergers and acquisitions for Scotiabank. Prior to working at Harrington Place, he led transaction negotiations with Metrolinx for Boxfish Infrastructure Group. This doesn’t mean that the Ministry plans to sell the TDSB to the lowest bidder, but it is interesting that it has chosen a supervisor with so much experience in real estate transactions. 

The Toronto District School Board controls some of the most valuable public land in the country, with 612 properties worth up to $20 billion. Alexis Dawson, a community member who was publicly elected to serve as a Ward 9 trustee for the Board told School Magazine that she is worried that the Board takeover might be part of a land grab, Bill 98 passed in 2023 gives the Minister the power to force a Board to sell land not needed for future use – even to a private developer. Dawson is concerned that the supervisor is mindful of the TDSB’s future use needs.  Schools sit on prime real estate developers would love to get their hands on. And if history is any indication, that’s exactly what this takeover is paving the way for.

Doug Ford and Paul Calandra are grifters, 24-7.  Calandra is the sort of sleaze-ball who is so shameless about providing favours for power that they love him and provide him all sorts of assistance so that he can impress the ignorant shit-heads who tend to vote "conservative."

His complete lack of principles or morals generally gets him cabinet posts.  He's not in politics for anything other than his own self-aggrandizement.  Someone like Doug Ford or stephen harper knows what they're getting when they select him.