QUEBEC CITY – The PQ government plans to examine “the structure and management” of school boards across the province – and may merge some of the smaller boards as a result.
Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau made the announcement Thursday when he tabled his budget.
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Marceau said his team found the bigger the board, the lower its per-student costs.
He claimed the province could save at least $125 million by regrouping smaller boards.
The only problem is that he didn’t say which ones, and that worries the Quebec English School Boards Association.
“We’d have to really be consulted,” said QESBA President David D’Aoust.
“I think we have to work on that together and not just as minister alone or minister of finance. It’d be a sorry day when the minister of finance starts to run education.”
The smaller boards, he argued, offer an important service to English-speaking communities across the province.
“I really don’t know that we’re going to do any better with serving our students in this point in time. We are already widely spread out as it is now,” said D’Aoust.
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The Central Quebec School Board in Quebec City argued mergers don’t necessarily amount to savings.
In 1998, the Bouchard government axed half of the province’s school boards but had to inject an extra $40 million.
“School boards are an important institution of the English community and I understand that they’re attached to it,” said Quebec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadir.
“I don’t think there is anything to gain for the public funds to scrap them.”
What the PQ could gain, though, are votes in ridings currently held by the CAQ.
François Legault’s party has always recommended abolishing school boards and CAQ minister Jacques Duchesneau said that he sees the PQ advancing on CAQ territory.
“People are intelligent and they know that there’s a game being played here,” he told Global News.
Polls show if the PQ manages to steal votes from the CAQ at the next election, it could form a majority government.
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