Local Voices Local Choices

July 2, 2021

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In January, 2019, the provincial government will be launching a review of Manitoba’s K-12 education system. Two matters which may be under consideration in this review are the large-scale amalgamation of the current 37 elected school boards in our province, and a possible move to appointed, rather than elected, school boards.

School boards are grassroots, democratic institutions. Alone, either of these changes would severely undermine the ability of communities to shape local schools. The first would create overly-large administrative units, and the second would eliminate the right of communities to choose their own representatives to govern their school system. Together, these two changes could silence the community’s voice in education completely. Together, they would take away community ownership of local schools.

If you value education and your ability to help shape local schools to meet community needs, we encourage you to voice your concerns about these possible changes with provincial government officials, including the Premier of Manitoba, the Minister of Education and Training, and your local MLA. A template letter, that you are welcome to use for this purpose, can be found under the downloads section of this page. Contact information for all MLAs, including email addresses, is available by clicking here.

To learn more about why local voices and local choices matter when it comes to public education in your community, please click on the following link: MSBA Local Voices, Local Choices.