WINNIPEG -- A day after the provincial government announced new plans to change the education system in Manitoba, Premier Brian Pallister defended the decision.

The proposed legislation that was put forward would see 37 school divisions as well as elected school boards and trustees eliminated if it were passed.

Pallister said the move would benefit both parents and students.

"We wouldn't make a change that wasn't in the best interest of children and their families," he said during a news conference Tuesday morning.

The school divisions would be replaced with a central education authority.

"We're empowering the school community councils to have way more power and influence than they've had in the past."

Pallister added it will give them power over capital construction, programming, transportation, teacher performance and suspensions and expulsions.

The Manitoba Association of Parent Councils hopes this move would result in more involvement for parents.

"We finally have gotten to a point where parents voices are being heard. For a number of years, parents have felt that they haven't been included in the curriculum," said Brenda Brazeau with the organization.

However, school trustees think otherwise.

"I think it's a very wrong move. I think it's anti-democratic. I think it takes away the voice of parents," said Chris Sigurdson, who is a school trustee in the Louis Riel School Division.

Trustees say they are elected and therefore accountable to the parents and can make decisions, whereas community councils can only advise and recommend.

"This is window dressing and this is powerless."

If the legislation is approved, the central authority would deal with bargaining and the province said it would phase out education taxes collected by the school boards, which Pallister said would mean there is no need for trustees.

"When a parent has a problem with their child in school, they don't go to a trustee, they don't go to a superintendent, not with great frequency. They go to a teacher," said Pallister.

When asked how many jobs this could possibly cut, Pallister didn't provide an exact number but did call the system top-heavy.

He said frontline staff such as janitors who work in division offices would get the first crack at government jobs in their areas.