A London District Catholic school board trustee slammed what he calls Queen’s Park interference in local decision-making as he and his colleagues debated ending busing to three specialty programs.

John Jevnikar spoke out about the government handling of school boards amid a debate earlier this week, saying it risked leaving elected trustees as “puppets of the government” across Ontario.

“The province is not doing its part in the funding going (on),” Jevnikar said during the debate. “It puts us in the position where we are puppets of the government and all you’re going to have is cookie-cutter school boards and systems throughout the province.”

Education Minister Paul Calandra has said he’s look­ing at restruc­tur­ing the trustee sys­tem in Ontario, though he recently stepped back from

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