I picked up on two things you said.
The first is the division of legislative responsibilities, which both levels of government must respect, of course. In other words, Parliament cannot directly legislate in an area such as education, as in your example.
The division of legislative responsibilities is one thing, but federal spending power is another. Although the jurisprudence has not provided a definitive answer to date, the Supreme Court of Canada has, on many occasions, shown itself to be in favour of the federal government using its spending power regardless of the division of legislative responsibilities. In other words, the Supreme Court has found that the federal government can spend money in areas under provincial jurisdiction and has never shown any sign of wanting to restrict that power.
Some may say that such statements are merely obiter dicta, incidental expressions of the Supreme Court of Canada's opinion on federal spending power. I can tell you that in some cases, such as Chaoulli, the Supreme Court went a long way by legitimizing and affirming the Canada Health Act, which, in a way, provides guidelines for federal spending on health. Technically, therefore, Parliament can do a lot with its federal spending power, even in areas under provincial jurisdiction.
That brings us to the political problem of Canadian intergovernmental relations. It would look very bad if the Government of Canada were to intervene directly in matters under provincial jurisdiction against the wishes of a provincial government. I cannot overemphasize how bad that would look in terms of intergovernmental relations.
I also know that a number of provinces, including Quebec—maybe especially Quebec—are very resistant to accountability. What that means is that, when the federal government spends money to help the provinces help official language communities, Ottawa can ask for accountability. Many of the provinces take a pretty vague approach to accountability, and some are downright opposed to the idea of the federal level requiring accountability for areas under provincial jurisdiction.