The Ontario government announced Tuesday that it will take over the operation of the Toronto and Hamilton District School Boards, after their trustees refused to balance their budgets.

Education Minister Elizabeth Witmer announced the widely-expected decision at an afternoon news conference, less than 24 hours after both school boards failed to meet a deadline to balance their books.

"We are taking this step in order that we can continue to put our students first," Witmer said. "We have a situation now where the trustees of both boards have been given ample assistance, advice and time to consider options to demonstrate good management and to meet their legislated obligations."

Witmer said provincially appointed supervisors will take over the budgetary functions of both boards, which were projecting large deficits for the 2002-03 school year, which begins next Tuesday.

Toronto school board trustees refused to make cuts to eliminate a projected $90 million deficit while the Hamilton board was facing a $16 million shortfall. Under legislation passed by the Tory government, it is illegal for a school board in Ontario to run a deficit.

Two weeks ago, Witmer made the same decision for the Ottawa school board. On Tuesday, the supervisor overseeing the Ottawa board said he has cut $4.7 million from the budget by making 22 schools share principals and chopping a plan to hire 50 special education teachers.

Parent groups accused Witmer of acting like a dictator by setting the elected trustees aside. "You can't come in and just say, 'Oh, this darn democracy just isn't working for us, we're going to wipe it out,''' Cathy Dandy of the Toronto Parent Network told Canadian Press.

Both the boards and the government says public schools in both cities will open next Tuesday.

"We have many dedicated teachers in those communities, and we have a lot of enthusiastic students who are ready to return to school," Witmer said. "And, of course, we need to reassure parents that their children will be receiving a quality education."

After taking power last April, Premier Ernie Eves said the government will review its controversial school funding formula and issue a report in November.