Léo Collard (11 July 1902 – 27 January 1981) was a Belgian politician in the Belgian Socialist Party (PSB–BSP) who served as minister of public education (1946 and 1954–1958) and Mayor of Mons (1953–1974).
In 1955, Collard tried to defund non-state schools and reverse an increase in teachers' pay brought in by the previous Christian Social Party government, while massively expanding state-owned schools. This led to the most violent phase of political conflict over educational funding in post-war Belgium, known as the Second School War, in which the Christian Social Party and the Catholic Church pressed for parity between free and state-run education.[1] Collard also introduced a requirement that all teachers be officially certified, making many priests and members of religious orders already working as teachers ineligible for the positions they held.