The Mike Harris gov't cut the foundation out of Toronto's evolved and carefully grown school system.

The goal, which has been executed in the US, is to hobble the public schools to the point that people with enough money take their kids out of the system. The system then has fewer knowledgeable and active proponents and defenders. This is a vicious cycle.

What you end up with is what they have in the US-- an uneducated underclass of people with no understanding of history, society, politics, literature and so on. They are cannon fodder and factory fodder and gang life flourishes in such communities.

Watch the series The Wire, or the film Precious, to get an idea what life is like for America's underclass. Also read Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich.