January 05, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

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CALGARY — Are public schools still democratically governed? And is it still accurate to refer to local school boards as “local”? A new study by the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy explores these questions. 

The report by Dr. Paul W. Bennett, Taking Back the Schools: How to Reverse the Decline in Local Education Democracy, finds that the public has remarkably little oversight of public schools, due to decades of school board consolidations.

“Across Canada, the school system is groaning under the weight of its own bureaucracy,” says Bennett. “Centralized control, layered administration, and top-down governance have hollowed out the very institutions meant to serve students, families, and communities.”

Key findings include:

• The number of school boards in Ontario has fallen by 98 percent since the early 1960s.
• Despite relatively stable student enrolment, the number of school boards has declined in all provinces since the 1990s, from a 20 percent reduction in British Columbia to a 95.5 percent reduction in Nova Scotia. 
• On average, school boards are not “local” but large and regional, with thousands of students.
• Likewise, there are remarkably few school board trustees. In most provinces, there are fewer than 10 trustees per 100,000 people. In Ontario, it’s 5.2; in Nova Scotia, it’s 1.9.
• Large regional school boards have weakened democratic representation, leaving elected trustees with limited authority and communities increasingly disconnected from decision making.

The study proposes a made-in-Canada alternative that restores genuine democracy in, and a local-community approach to, school governance.

“Edmonton’s experience with school-based management shows that decentralization can succeed,” says Bennett, “when authority is placed closer to schools and communities.” 

The full study, Taking Back the Schools: How to Reverse the Decline in Local Education Democracy, is available at: https://aristotlefoundation.org/reality-check/taking-back-the-schools-how-to-reverse-the-decline-in-local-education-democracy/ 

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MEDIA CONTACT
Dami Itabiyi, Media and Marketing Coordinator
Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy
Email: media@aristotlefoundation.org

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Media Contact:

Dami Itabiyi

Media and Marketing Coordinator, Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy

media@aristotlefoundation.org

Phone: 403-401-3828