Pembina Hills Public Schools trustees hope to meet with Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken to seek clarification on the United Conservative Party’s proposed polices around education, particularly one proposal about “devolving” decision-making to individual schools rather than school boards.
During their Jan. 24 meeting at Dunstable School, trustees unanimously passed a motion to request a meeting with the MLA about the United Conservative Party’s (UCP) draft policy framework.
The framework is essentially a starting point for discussion at the party’s founding convention in May where they will be setting policy. Two education-related items from the document have been the subject of much debate in provincial and local media.
The first is a proposal to ensure equal per-student funding regardless of school choice, meaning private schools would be allocated 100 per cent of the base instruction rate that public schools get, rather than the 70 per cent they receive now.
The second is a proposal to “devolve decision-making to individual schools” so that public and separate schools have the same governance and curriculum flexibility as charter schools.
Board chair Jennifer Tuininga said the document was brought to the board for information, but “I’m also wondering if there’s action needed on our behalf (in terms) of following up with our own MLA.”
Tuininga said they could simply send a letter to van Dijken stating they were opposed to the possible dissolution of school boards.
Trustee Jackie Carson said she liked the idea of writing a letter “just so he knows where we stand” and later put forward a motion to do so.
Due to the general vagueness of the document, Supt. David Garbutt warned the board against making assumptions about what the UCP intended to do.
“There’s no substance there,” he said. “You have no idea what it means.”
Carson said that perhaps that should be the purpose of the letter: to request clarification from the MLA.
However, trustee Jackie Comeau said she thought that a meeting with the MLA might be a good idea as well.“This is pretty important,” she added.
Trustee Judy Lefebvre noted the document was somewhat contradictory, pointing out another policy stating the UCP would encourage schools and school boards “to find efficiencies and improve the delivery of education to Alberta students.”
That would be impossible if school boards had been dissolved, she indicated.
For his part van Dijken says people concerned with ideas presented in the draft policy framework are putting the cart before the horse.
In an interview, van Dijken said he had not read the actual policy framework, so was unable to provide insight into whether the policy called for the dissolution of school boards or something else.
“There’s still a lot of process that’s left before we get to an actual framework of the principles of the party,” he said. “The principles of the party are to be led from the grassroots. So, we take direction from the members. There’s really nothing to hide. There’s a lot of process that’s involved here and I think it’s a very healthy process.”
However, on the subject of equal funding for private schools, van Dijken indicated it was his belief that they have equal funding right now.
“People think that they don’t, that it’s only 70 per cent. But it’s based off the capital allocations within the educational funding,” he said.
“So, the schools that are owned by the province are funded by the province to have their operations continue. So that 30 per cent is largely allowing for maintenance and upkeep of provincial assets.
“I look at that and go, ‘OK, ensure equal per student funding regardless of school choice’. People want to interpret whatever they want to out of that, but the way I interpret that is that’s what’s happening right now.”
-With files from Eric Bowling
