Saturday, January 17, 2015

Toronto’s school board isn’t just troubled. It’s rotten


Neglected houses all tend to have a similar look about them. The same can be said of big, stagnant organizations.

Their physical plant is run down. Their internal politics are poisonous. Their leadership is weak and self-serving.

Mediocrity flourishes while excellence is insufficiently rewarded. As time goes by, they turn in on themselves. They lose sight of the people they serve. They defend their old ways and cling to their privileges.

Look at our beloved Toronto Transit Commission, with its shabby subway stations and grumpy fare collectors in their little glass booths. Even a civil servant as capable and dynamic as TTC chief Andy Byford is having a hard time shaking up that public-sector brontosaurus.

Now look, if you dare, at the Toronto District School Board. This gargantuan bureaucracy, overseeing 588 schools, 247,000 students and $3-billion in annual spending, is in an ungodly mess.  (more...)


More hand-wringing:


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