Who Holds the Chalk? How Public Education in Canada Was Built and Why It's Changing

I realized recently that I went all the way through public school and university without anyone ever really explaining how the education system works.

I don’t mean what happens in classrooms. I mean the system behind it. Who makes decisions? Who is accountable? Why it’s structured the way it is?

It took me years, and a career in this space, to understand and appreciate it in its complexity. Which is strange, when you think about it. This is one of the largest public institutions in the country. It shapes almost every life. And most of us move through it without ever being taught how it functions.

Public education in Canada didn’t appear fully formed. It was built slowly, by communities, over generations. People raised money, built schools, argued about priorities, elected trustees, and showed up to meetings. It was often messy. It was rarely elegant. But it was public.

Out of that grew school boards, provincial oversight, professional standards. A system that tried, imperfectly, to balance local voice, professional expertise, and public accountability.

For a long time, that balance held.

But it also masked real inequities. Some communities were well resourced. Others weren’t. Some students were well served. Others were quietly left behind. Geography, wealth, and politics mattered more than they should have.

Centralization was, in many ways, a response to that. An attempt to level the field. To set clearer standards. To make access less dependent on postal code.

For a time, that worked too.

Outcomes improved. Gaps narrowed. Systems became more coherent. Professional supports strengthened.

But every structural fix creates new pressures.

Distance grew between decision makers and communities. Local knowledge weakened. Public voice thinned. Responsibility blurred.

And now we find ourselves in a different place again. More centralized. More regulated. More strained. Less trusted.

Which brings us to the present moment.

What parts of this system are essential to protect? What parts are no longer serving students well? What should we be willing to let go of? And where does real innovation actually belong?

I’m going to spend some time writing about it.

Not as nostalgia. As context that feels increasingly absent from public conversation.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing short reflections on how public education in Canada was built, what it was meant to do, and what changes when its foundations are weakened.

No hot takes, I promise.

Sherri Moore-Arbour

CEO

BUNYAAD Public Affairs

Back