My family ties to the public education system in Alberta run quite deep. My great grandfather was a school trustee in the early 1990s. Other relatives were esteemed university professors, including medicine, engineering, and human ecology. I also have other relatives who are school teachers. A sibling is an employee at the ATA.
The ability we have to read, write, and solve mathematical problems, are because of teachers. Doctors, nurses, engineers, and a whole bunch of other professionals had teachers teach them those skills, which benefit us immensely.
It's horrible how the UCP pretends to care about public education in Alberta.
As a side note, it would be awesome if we could take courses from Lisa Young, Jared Wesley, Andrew Leach, and Trevor Tombe.
Attacking teachers and the public education system in Alberta has been a tried and true hallmark of politicians, such as Ralph Klein, and the UCP are doing it too.
Ralph Klein gave so many teachers pink slips, and schools were grossly underfunded. This led to serious problems, such as overcrowded classrooms.
The UCP have treated teachers, and school support staff in Alberta like garbage, and have underfunded the public education system in this province too. Now, coincidentally, before her leadership review, Danielle Smith is trying to trick Albertans into thinking she cares, by dumping this money into building new schools for Alberta. They need teachers, and other staff, otherwise they will be big empty boxes.
Danielle Smith is handing more money to charter schools, as well as to private schools, and to other schools outside of the public education realm. That's not a good thing to do, because the public education system is still suffering from funding being diverted to these other schools.
At one point, Danielle Smith was a public school trustee. Her ideas were so out of touch, that the Alberta PCs had to can her.
"Since their introduction in 1994, Alberta charter schools have received 100% per student funding of public dollars but have been granted different regulations than public school boards. Charter schools are not obligated to admit every applicant, and can deny entry based on entrance exams or other factors. Charter schools are also governed by closed entities that are not democratically elected by the population at large. As such, they are publicly funded but privately operated. Neither fully public nor fully private.Under this hybrid, charter schools divert funding from public community schools for exclusive interests, not accessible to many. With the lifting of the charter authority cap by the United Conservative Government, at least 3 new charter schools have been approved with more waiting in the wings. Their Choice in Education Act now permits charter applications to bypass local public school boards and charters are granted at the sole discretion of the Minister of Education.
Lack of transparency, absent of open evaluation of their original mandate, and duplicity of programming that exists in the public system are all red flags. There is only one pot of money; funding that goes to charter schools is being diverted from community schools that already have capital and operational deficits. Charters pose a real and imminent threat to neighbourhood schools by marketing to families and siphoning off students, forcing public school closures. This has already happened in Calgary and is spreading into rural municipalities. A student living across the street from a charter school may be denied access and may now have to bus to the closest public school outside of their area.
Originally, the charter experiment was supposed to test innovations to be brought back to the public system. But the process was never properly established and has been obscured by lack of transparency. The charter experiment has run its course. The solution to making public schools more equitable is expanding accommodations and being more inclusive. The answer is not exclusive charter schools that self-select students using public funds.
"Alberta is the only province in Canada with charter schools but it is an American import system. This is the accelerated erosion of public education in real time. Charter schools are a pathway to a tiered system that fragments neighbourhoods and societies. It is money going to a few at the expense of the many.” - Medeana Moussa, Executive Director, Support Our Students Alberta
For 7 years, Support Our Students has been sounding the alarm on the creeping agenda to erode public education in Alberta. The privatization agenda of education has been well documented, and played out disastrously in the US. High-quality, equitable public education accessible to all is a fundamental pillar of democracy. Charter schools are an affront to the integrity of public education in Alberta. Their rapid expansion without public oversight is accelerating the destabilization of public education. Charters need to pick a lane. It’s time to fold them into the public system or declare them true private enterprises.
That was Ralph Klein's handiwork. I remember that he starved the public education system, with very bad cuts. Teachers were laid off in droves, and schools were badly underfunded. He did the exact same thing with nurses and hospitals. The damage was immense and lasting.
Charter schools are not private schools. They are public schools and they fall under the aegis of the public boards. They were established in the name of providing more choices in the public system. Parents do not pay to send their kids to charter schools. However, the teachers at charter schools don't earn as much as their unionized counterparts in the rest of the public system.
While tuition fees cannot be charged for charter schools, other fees can be levied - including “instructional fees.” So parents may pay - just not tuition. It’s also important to note that our public school systems also include focused religious schools too - so, for example, Lethbridge School Division (the UCP eliminated “public” from the name) includes Immanuel Christian and Lethbridge Christian schools. In other words, the waters are already very muddy.
And being a Libertarian Premier,, leading an ultra right religious party, you can bet they are a practicing neoliberalism and the first goal of neoliberalism is create an us vs them, that is an enemy. Accomplished.
Next you collaborate with your business supporters and privatize all government assets and services. Definitely underway.
And third eliminate unions as they interfere with profit. Well underway and education and health services unions high on the list and likely related to the dismemberment of AHS.
And finally privatized education creates profit, eliminates unions and opens the foor to brainwashing kids to the market. You don't want students to realize they are not just consumers in a market economy but citizens who consider society as a whole, not just themselves
Conservatives endlessly fool around with governance in healthcare and schools. It’s a tired playbook for kicking problems down the road. Then the blame Ottawa. UCP is never responsible.
I found the comments on what might or might not be politically wise for the NDP hit me again with how often the measure of what to do is political response. Was there ever a time when a party or a candidate for office ever took a position because it was right for the province or country, and, if so, was it always a political death knell for the person who did it?
My family ties to the public education system in Alberta run quite deep. My great grandfather was a school trustee in the early 1990s. Other relatives were esteemed university professors, including medicine, engineering, and human ecology. I also have other relatives who are school teachers. A sibling is an employee at the ATA.
The ability we have to read, write, and solve mathematical problems, are because of teachers. Doctors, nurses, engineers, and a whole bunch of other professionals had teachers teach them those skills, which benefit us immensely.
It's horrible how the UCP pretends to care about public education in Alberta.
As a side note, it would be awesome if we could take courses from Lisa Young, Jared Wesley, Andrew Leach, and Trevor Tombe.
Attacking teachers and the public education system in Alberta has been a tried and true hallmark of politicians, such as Ralph Klein, and the UCP are doing it too.
Ralph Klein gave so many teachers pink slips, and schools were grossly underfunded. This led to serious problems, such as overcrowded classrooms.
The UCP have treated teachers, and school support staff in Alberta like garbage, and have underfunded the public education system in this province too. Now, coincidentally, before her leadership review, Danielle Smith is trying to trick Albertans into thinking she cares, by dumping this money into building new schools for Alberta. They need teachers, and other staff, otherwise they will be big empty boxes.
Danielle Smith is handing more money to charter schools, as well as to private schools, and to other schools outside of the public education realm. That's not a good thing to do, because the public education system is still suffering from funding being diverted to these other schools.
At one point, Danielle Smith was a public school trustee. Her ideas were so out of touch, that the Alberta PCs had to can her.
What a big mess we have.
"Since their introduction in 1994, Alberta charter schools have received 100% per student funding of public dollars but have been granted different regulations than public school boards. Charter schools are not obligated to admit every applicant, and can deny entry based on entrance exams or other factors. Charter schools are also governed by closed entities that are not democratically elected by the population at large. As such, they are publicly funded but privately operated. Neither fully public nor fully private.Under this hybrid, charter schools divert funding from public community schools for exclusive interests, not accessible to many. With the lifting of the charter authority cap by the United Conservative Government, at least 3 new charter schools have been approved with more waiting in the wings. Their Choice in Education Act now permits charter applications to bypass local public school boards and charters are granted at the sole discretion of the Minister of Education.
Lack of transparency, absent of open evaluation of their original mandate, and duplicity of programming that exists in the public system are all red flags. There is only one pot of money; funding that goes to charter schools is being diverted from community schools that already have capital and operational deficits. Charters pose a real and imminent threat to neighbourhood schools by marketing to families and siphoning off students, forcing public school closures. This has already happened in Calgary and is spreading into rural municipalities. A student living across the street from a charter school may be denied access and may now have to bus to the closest public school outside of their area.
Originally, the charter experiment was supposed to test innovations to be brought back to the public system. But the process was never properly established and has been obscured by lack of transparency. The charter experiment has run its course. The solution to making public schools more equitable is expanding accommodations and being more inclusive. The answer is not exclusive charter schools that self-select students using public funds.
"Alberta is the only province in Canada with charter schools but it is an American import system. This is the accelerated erosion of public education in real time. Charter schools are a pathway to a tiered system that fragments neighbourhoods and societies. It is money going to a few at the expense of the many.” - Medeana Moussa, Executive Director, Support Our Students Alberta
For 7 years, Support Our Students has been sounding the alarm on the creeping agenda to erode public education in Alberta. The privatization agenda of education has been well documented, and played out disastrously in the US. High-quality, equitable public education accessible to all is a fundamental pillar of democracy. Charter schools are an affront to the integrity of public education in Alberta. Their rapid expansion without public oversight is accelerating the destabilization of public education. Charters need to pick a lane. It’s time to fold them into the public system or declare them true private enterprises.
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Comments are closed.
https://www.supportourstudents.ca/press-room/support-our-students-calls-for-end-of-charter-school-experiment-pick-a-lane-as-fully-public-or-private
That was Ralph Klein's handiwork. I remember that he starved the public education system, with very bad cuts. Teachers were laid off in droves, and schools were badly underfunded. He did the exact same thing with nurses and hospitals. The damage was immense and lasting.
Same shit different pile as HC
Charter schools are not private schools. They are public schools and they fall under the aegis of the public boards. They were established in the name of providing more choices in the public system. Parents do not pay to send their kids to charter schools. However, the teachers at charter schools don't earn as much as their unionized counterparts in the rest of the public system.
While tuition fees cannot be charged for charter schools, other fees can be levied - including “instructional fees.” So parents may pay - just not tuition. It’s also important to note that our public school systems also include focused religious schools too - so, for example, Lethbridge School Division (the UCP eliminated “public” from the name) includes Immanuel Christian and Lethbridge Christian schools. In other words, the waters are already very muddy.
And being a Libertarian Premier,, leading an ultra right religious party, you can bet they are a practicing neoliberalism and the first goal of neoliberalism is create an us vs them, that is an enemy. Accomplished.
Next you collaborate with your business supporters and privatize all government assets and services. Definitely underway.
And third eliminate unions as they interfere with profit. Well underway and education and health services unions high on the list and likely related to the dismemberment of AHS.
And finally privatized education creates profit, eliminates unions and opens the foor to brainwashing kids to the market. You don't want students to realize they are not just consumers in a market economy but citizens who consider society as a whole, not just themselves
Conservatives endlessly fool around with governance in healthcare and schools. It’s a tired playbook for kicking problems down the road. Then the blame Ottawa. UCP is never responsible.
I found the comments on what might or might not be politically wise for the NDP hit me again with how often the measure of what to do is political response. Was there ever a time when a party or a candidate for office ever took a position because it was right for the province or country, and, if so, was it always a political death knell for the person who did it?
That's all we need for now as it will guide us to the Premier's nefarious announcements and goals (Merriam Webster definition)