Bill 86: Hearings on school board reform underway
Bill would replace elected councils with parents, teachers, and community representatives
Legislative hearings into a Quebec bill to end school board elections began Tuesday, with more than 50 groups and individuals signed up to present their positions.
If passed, Bill 86 would abolish school board elections and councils of commissioners. Elected councils of school commissioners would be replaced by new school councils with 16 representatives, which are either elected or appointed.
These councils would be composed of:
- six parents, one of whom is the parent of a child with a disability.
- two school principals.
- one teacher.
- one non-teaching staff member.
- six community members.
The bill has faced fierce opposition, especially from English school boards, which have said they would challenge the law in court.
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One concern is that the new system would jeopardize the anglophone community's constitutional right as a language minority group to manage its own schools by electing representatives.
Opponents of the bill even found an unlikely ally in Parti Québécois leader Pierre Karl Péladeau.
"If they want to reform school board governance, they must respect the anglophone community's rights," Péladeau said to the surprise of many.
The committee on culture and education will hear from the Commission scolaire de Montréal and that board's parent association today. Another hearing is scheduled for Thursday this week.
Hearings were supposed to start last month but were postponed when Premier Philippe Couillard made a last-minute cabinet shuffle, replacing education minister François Blais with Pierre Moreau.
Another stir happened when the province's two largest English and French-language school boards were at first refused slots on the agenda. The government eventually bowed to public pressure and added them to the list of presenters.