People for Education

16/04/2026

TWO MORE DAYS to nominate a program, organization, or leader doing school-based work in a Canadian public school (or schools!) to create a healthier, more democratic, sustainable, or productive Canada!

You can self-nominate or nominate someone you work with for the Kidder-Pascal Promise in Practice Award and it should only take about 15 minutes to submit.

🔗 Nomination form here: https://peopleforeducation.ca/get-involved/kidder-pascal/kidder-pascal-awards-nomination-form/

Nominations close this Friday, April 17.

14/04/2026

Digital literacy. AI adoption. Rapidly changing economy. What does it all mean for public schools?

Brought to you in partnership with the McKenna Institute, that's what we're going to be talking about in Fredericton, New Brunswick for the next in our Promise of Public Education event series.

🗓️ Wednesday, April 22
🕐 5pm-7:30pm
📍 Wu Conference Centre at UNB

🎟️ Tickets are free but limited so register right away: Digital literacy. AI adoption. Rapidly changing economy. What does it all mean for public schools?

Join our terrific panel of experts as we explore this important topic: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1987148656123?aff=oddtdtcreator

✅ Howie Bender, Head of Growth and Partnerships, Rubicon Publishing Inc.
✅ Abby David, Strategic Program Director, McKenna Institute
✅ Dimitri Pavlounis, Director of Research, CIVIX
✅ Sarah Rankin, Lead, NB Centre of Excellence, Digital Innovation
✅ Heidi Ryder, President, NB Teachers' Association

Special thank you to our event sponsors Rubicon Publishing and Magnet.

07/04/2026

🏆 INTRODUCING...The Kidder-Pascal Awards for Systems Change & Innovation in Education!

Do you know an organization, initiative, or leaders doing amazing work in a Canadian K-12 public school to advance a healthier, more sustainable, democratic, and productive country? Nominate them for the first-ever Kidder-Pascal Promise in Practice Award.

Nominations are now open. You can nominate yourself/ your organization or someone else.

🔗https://peopleforeducation.ca/get-involved/kidder-pascal/
🗓️ Deadline to apply April 17.

The Kidder-Pascal Awards are named after two great education champions, the late Dr. Charles Pascal and People for Education's founding Executive Director, Annie Kidder. The Awards will help us celebrate visionary leadership, bold ideas, and transformative action that advance the promise of public education in Canada.

Thank you to our inaugural Nominating Committee for volunteering their time and passion to selecting the award winners, and to our award launch partners The O'Neil Foundation and Atkinson Foundation.

19/03/2026

NEW DATE!!!

Thanks to our partnership with the Global Centre for Pluralism, we are officially rescheduled for our Ottawa Promise of Public Education event.

We'll be getting into the historical and present day complexity and messiness of pluralism, institutional trust, and religious accommodation in Canada's public schools.

Join us!

🗓️ Wednesday, April 8
🕔 5pm-7pm
📍 Global Centre for Pluralism, Ottawa
🎟️ Register for free: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1985418517231?aff=oddtdtcreator

19/03/2026

Leadership in education requires a broad, holistic vision for how systems connect. The late great Dr. Charles Pascal spent his career pushing us to think bigger about how education, health, and poverty intersect.

Public education's role in a great Canada has always been at the core of Annie Kidder's research and advocacy. For decades, People for Education's founding Executive Director has been inspiring action in education.

In honour of Charles' and Annie's legacies of impact, we are getting ready to recognize Canadian leaders in education with the launch of the Kidder-Pascal Awards for Systems Change & Innovation in Education.

Nominations open April 1!

Subscribe to our newsletter to have all the details delivered directly to your inbox: https://peopleforeducation.ca/subscribe/

04/03/2026

Due to illness, we are rescheduling our Ottawa event for another time soon.

We are so disappointed to have to cancel and are so grateful to everyone who registered to attend. We are looking forward to having this conversation in the coming months.

Stay tuned for a new date.

02/03/2026

After two successful events in Toronto and Hamilton, the Promise of Public Education series is coming to Ottawa this week!

🗓️ Wednesday, March 4, 5-7pm
📍Global Centre for Pluralism, 330 Sussex Dr., Ottawa
🎟️ Limited but free, so register today! http://bit.ly/4aO5iti

In partnership with the The Global Centre for Pluralism, we're going to be having a hard, challenging, and essential conversation about the role of Canada's public schools in building institutional trust and in supporting pluralism and what that all means for nation-building - both historically and now.

We'll be joined by this wonderfully thoughtful panel:

📢 Joanna VanHof, Director of the Education Program, Cardus
📢 Reg Klassen, Executive Director, Canadian Association of School System Administrators
📢 Christa Romaldi, Director, Program Fidelity and Program Development, The Students Commission of Canada
📢 Nathalie Sirois, Senior Manager, Education, Global Centre for Pluralism - Centre mondial du pluralisme

And we will welcome Dr. Jennifer Wallner, associate professor with the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa and Jean-Luc Pépin Research Chair in Canadian Politics, for an opening presentation about the historical origins of public education.

See you on Wednesday, Ottawa!

15/01/2026

Join People for Education's founding Executive Director for a personal, thoughtful, and honest conversation about succession planning as a nonprofit founder as part of Maytree's Five Good Ideas series.

Free and virtual. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8817648626913/WN_TLO_wpKeSa2ZnV0IMMEfQg #/registration

Founder transitions aren’t just strategic; they’re emotional, complicated, and deeply personal.

Join Annie Kidder, co-founder of People for Education and recently retired, for Five Good Ideas on surviving succession.

She’ll share a founder’s-eye view of what really happens during succession – what works, what hurts, what to let go of, and how to steer an organization into its next chapter.

🗓️Monday, January 19, 1:00PM ET

📌Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2517650626577/WN_TLO_wpKeSa2ZnV0IMMEfQg

02/12/2025

This Giving Tuesday, we're doing something a little different. We asked one of our longest supporters why she's put her trust in us for so long and why she thinks it's important to keep investing in our evidence-based advocacy.

We invite you to read Margaret's story below and to join her as a Giving Tuesday donor to help build our work across the country.

Donate here: https://peopleforeducation.ca/donate/

Read about Margaret

Margaret Proctor's connection to PFE deepened over decades where she had the opportunity to engage with our work through in-person events and celebrations of public education. One annual policy conference stands out for Margaret: together with other parents, academics, educators, and school system leaders, PFE shared the results of that year's Annual Ontario School Survey. It revealed a troubling trend: the declining number of social workers in schools.

"You can know something from your own experience and that of your kids, but to then understand it as a systemic issue was powerful."

This moment crystallized the importance of PFE's work for her. "The work of PFE is so important because otherwise we wouldn't know those things," she says, emphasizing PFE's role in helping individuals connect their personal experiences to crucial systemic data.

When asked what she would tell someone considering their first donation, Margaret’s message is clear and compelling:

"Education is so important not just for our own kids but for society, for our democracy. It's the foundation on which everything else rests."

She sees the role of PFE as both a watchdog and a champion. "People for Education protects [public education], yes, by pointing out the flaws and issues, but also by reinforcing and celebrating its importance."

For Margaret, investing in PFE is an act of hope and faith in the future. "The kids will tell us how they want to learn and we ignore that at our peril," she cautions. People for Education's work is essential because "hope is important, as is faith in our collective ability to prepare our kids for an uncertain future."

Thank you, Margaret - we're so grateful for your support for us, and most importantly, in the value of public education!