The adversarial tone of Alberta’s UCP government has eroded teacher trust and that cannot continue.
This was a point of agreement for all the UCP leadership candidates who participated in an education forum hosted by the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) on Aug. 10. Six of the seven candidates vying for the UCP leadership took part in the forum: Leela Aheer, Brian Jean, Todd Loewen, Rajan Sawhney, Rebecca Schulz and Danielle Smith. Travis Toews was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.
Held during the ATA’s Summer Conference in Banff, the forum attracted nearly 500 teacher delegates.
Following candidate introductions, moderator Kelly Cryderman from the Globe and Mail posed curated questions previously gathered from teachers. Questions touched on topics ranging from curriculum development to the AIMCo “pension grab.”
Of the six candidates present, Aheer, Sawhney and Schulz agreed that any further curriculum development must stop, but only Sawhney committed verbally to halting implementation of the new curriculum that’s being rolled out this fall.
Both Loewen and Jean felt curriculum development should continue but with greater teacher input. Jean went a step further and proposed turning September’s implementation into an optional pilot.
“Teachers are to decide whether or not they teach it,” Jean said.
Smith defended the language arts and mathematics portions of the new curriculum, saying she’s been hearing from parents that literacy and numeracy are two subject areas where the public education system was failing their kids. Her answer was not well received by the audience, which appeared to put Smith on the defensive.
“Look, if you want us to listen to you, you have to hear what we’re hearing from parents.”
Smith also named Postmedia newspaper columnist David Staples (an outspoken critic of the ATA) as someone she takes a lot of advice from on educational issues. This brought an audible groan from the crowd.
“Respect is a two-way street, guys. Honestly,” replied Smith.
“That’s all that we’re asking,” replied an unidentified woman in the crowd.
Aside from Smith, each candidate outlined their concerns with how the new curriculum was developed.
“The biggest concern I heard was around the process,” said Schulz. “Teachers didn’t feel like we had enough Alberta teachers involved in providing feedback in the process.”
“It’s not just about pulling this curriculum. This is about restarting an entire system of trust,” added Aheer. “My job is to work with you. My job is to be your partner. My job is to make sure that you can do yours.”
“We need to be able to listen in government,” said Loewen. “We need to be able to take constructive criticism and be able to move forward and collaborate to get the proper results that we need.”
Another hot-button issue was the transfer of the Alberta Teacher Retirement Fund (ATRF) to AIMCo.
“Well, if you want to understand the deepest disrespect that we could have done to our teachers,” said Aheer, “that was it.”
Five of the six candidates agreed that lack of consultation with the ATRF was inexcusable. Smith, the other candidate, only commented that, if AIMCo had been able to provide better returns, the decision probably wouldn’t have been so controversial. This comment drew another round of jeers from the crowd.
President issues warning
ATA president Jason Schilling wrapped up the forum with some stern words for the candidates.
“These are my colleagues,” said Schilling. “These are teachers. And to be perfectly honest and frank with you, your party and your government has failed them.”
“Our education system is an investment in our youth and our future,” Schilling added. “It’s not an expense.”
Schilling told the candidates that when the new leader is elected, Alberta teachers and the ATA will hold them accountable to the promises they’ve made.
“I don’t value dishonesty. I don’t value empty words,” Schilling said. “I’m hoping what we heard up here today are going to be things that you believe and you will champion and you will fight for.”
