Re: Commentary headlined “Education should be a government priority,” on page 22 of the June 6 Albertan
I will be surprised if it changes course since it has been supporting private education and charter schools at the expense of public education. What happened to the “good old days” when private schools were entirely funded by parents and churches? Did the public have a choice? Did our provincial government allow for a referendum on this matter?
There are four provinces that provide public assistance to private schools, and Alberta has the highest rate of funding for such schools, now up to 70 per cent funding.
Plus, academic standards have declined because our government places less emphasis on diploma exam results. They once counted for 50 per cent of a student’s overall mark, and the teacher’s mark counted for 50 per cent.
Now the diploma exams count for only 20 per cent. Why? Plus, we now see several other scoring systems (American-style education) in place of percentile marks (A,B, C, D and F; no fail; pass/fail; no marks, etc.). Alberta education once ranked high in academic achievements, in the four core subjects: math, science, English/language arts, and social studies. What happened to our high standards?
Over the past 50 years we’ve seen an erosion of academic standards in America due to political interference and less funding for public education, and we seem to go going down the same path.
America’s acclaimed public educational system has been in decline because of political interferences at the state level - lowering graduation requirements; less funding per child; censoring what can be taught; less emphasis on academic results and more emphasis on “feel good courses”; more funding for non-academic activities (football, basketball, baseball, marching bands, cheer leading, etc.).
Consequently, many American businesses look to hiring people who have graduated from countries and institutions that have maintained high academic standards.
We have politicians in our province who seem bent on spending more public money into “private business” such as private schools and private energy companies. Did the public have a choice? Were we allowed to vote in referendums on such matters?
Will we be allowed to vote on a proposed provincial pension plan? On a provincial police force? On the elimination of victim services? On public health care versus private health care? On public social services?
Do we believe in democracy, or do we allow a few individuals (oligarchy) to determine the future of our province? It seems (right now) that our provincial government is more interested in supporting private business interests at the expense of public services.
George Thatcher,
Olds
