Stephen Lecce

Stephen Lecce has served as Ontario's Minister of Education under Doug Ford since 2019 — one of the longest-serving education ministers in Ontario's recent history. His tenure has been defined by repeated conflicts with teacher unions, the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on schools, and the Ford government's curriculum changes including the revised math curriculum with a stronger STEM focus and the updated sex education curriculum. The relationship between the Ford government and Ontario's teaching profession is one of the most confrontational in the province's recent history. Lecce has been the minister who delivered government positions in those conflicts — wage cap legislation, back-to-work orders, negotiations that teachers' unions consistently described as inadequate and in bad faith. Classrooms across Ontario lost significant instructional time to labour disputes during his tenure, and the impact on student learning outcomes is documented. Ontario's EQAO results — standardized test scores in math and reading — improved modestly after hitting historic lows during the pandemic years, but the province's student literacy and numeracy outcomes remain concerning. A minister who has had six years to implement curriculum changes and teacher professional development investments should be accountable for whether those investments produced results. Education in Ontario has also faced the acute challenge of the mental health crisis among students post-pandemic — anxiety, school avoidance, and depression at rates that the mental health support in schools cannot adequately address. Lecce has spoken about mental health investment without delivering the counselling-to-student ratios that educators say are needed.