Western Standard - EXCLUSIVE： Jeff Park - Alberta parents advocating for the best possible education

00:00:00.000 Alberta Parents Union, union in the old-fashioned sense of the word of people coming together for

00:00:05.520 a common goal, where parents who want to have more of a voice, more impact in the K-12 education

00:00:15.040 system. So, you know, I've been hearing from a lot of parents, especially over the last two years,

00:00:21.760 about how things have just gotten too big, too far away from the parents, where

00:00:26.960 we have a system that's designed, supposed to be designed around parental authority and around

00:00:35.040 parents' driving quality in the education system, especially to the extent that the money does

00:00:41.280 follow the child to the school of the parent's choice. But that started to erode, and we're

00:00:46.160 getting away from that and too much reliance on the so-called experts, when the real experts on

00:00:51.280 any individual kid are the parents of that kid. Well, that's it. And we have, I mean,

00:00:56.720 just speaking for myself, one of the things I get frustrated with is teachers, unions, or other

00:01:01.200 advocates, and so I would say, keep pointing out all the time for things like standardized testing.

00:01:05.120 Well, every child is different, everyone learns differently, and we can't have that standardized

00:01:09.040 testing to measure. I kind of agree, that's fair enough. The parents know as well, their children

00:01:13.280 respond, this child responds to this, this doesn't with that. But if anybody talks about changing the

00:01:17.040 status quo from a standard, well, all of a sudden, no, no, no, no, no, we have to keep the public system,

00:01:20.880 only one model, one curriculum, no matter what, and the parents are ignored. It's trying to crack

00:01:26.720 that double standard a little. Absolutely. And if you were to suggest

00:01:31.200 moving to the system that we have in education in any other area, including healthcare, by the way,

00:01:38.400 where you take your pile of taxpayer money with you to whichever doctor you choose, and the bad doctors

00:01:46.960 go out of business because no one picks them. But imagine that we said we're going to residentially

00:01:54.560 assign you grocery stores, and you have to go shop for groceries at the nearest grocery store,

00:01:59.520 and it's a monopoly option, you don't get any other choices, or if you do, you've got to pay for it

00:02:03.920 again. You've got to pay the grocery store closest to you, and then pay again for a grocery store that

00:02:08.560 will actually serve you and meet your needs. Everyone would think that was insane, but because it's the

00:02:13.600 status quo in education, it's considered radical to violate it. Yeah, so you're looking at offering,

00:02:21.440 you're promoting choice in education then. I mean, we've got a few options right now, charter schools,

00:02:26.560 and they're starting to grow and develop, but they've got a great deal of limitations. So you're

00:02:30.400 looking to expand more of those alternatives? Yes, more choices, less limitations on those choices.

00:02:35.200 You know, I mean, it's like, so Alberta, the only province in Canada that allows charter schools,

00:02:43.360 and that's great. But it's like when we introduced them, we were almost afraid they would be too

00:02:48.240 successful. They started out capped, the total number of charter schools, no online charter schools,

00:02:54.400 no co-location between two charter schools. It's all this, all these hurdles, like we were too

00:03:03.200 afraid they would be too successful. And, and that's, that's so much of the choice in education.

00:03:09.120 It's almost, almost afraid that it'll be too successful, undermine, and, and undermine the,

00:03:17.520 the world-class public system when really it, the, we have a world-class system because of the choice

00:03:25.360 and competition, like in everything else. Competition drives quality. And so even for the majority of kids

00:03:31.760 that are never going to go to anything, but a, but a fully loaded public school, the quality is driven

00:03:36.720 for them as well by those other options being there. Yeah. And, and I mean, we're just seeing a lot of

00:03:41.600 controversial subjects entering curriculums or getting into classrooms that not every parent is

00:03:46.480 comfortable with. And when they, again, they're, they're, they're children essentially locked into

00:03:49.520 one system. You have no choice or direction towards what they're going to be learning. I mean, there's always

00:03:54.560 going to be a core curriculum. I imagine you have to have that, but, or core standards. Yes. Yes.

00:03:59.680 But with some choice, parents could choose to put their children into facilities that might not be

00:04:05.280 putting some of that other messaging out there. Sure. Kids are not one size fits all. Education

00:04:10.160 is not one size fits all. The idea that there would even be one, one size fits all curriculum

00:04:15.840 for 4 million Albertans is, is, is, is kind of crazy. So what we need is for, and, and, and then if we,

00:04:26.320 if, if, if all we can do is change these things from the top down, then, then all we can do is have

00:04:33.360 these super politicized fights where one side wins and one side licks their wounds and is going to get

00:04:38.400 revenge the next time. And so the other option is pluralism and choice where, where we empower parents

00:04:47.520 to go to whatever choices and the choices that succeed are the choices we'll see more of. And, and that's how,

00:04:54.080 that's how we, we get in just like in every other thing, like buying groceries, uh, how we get

00:05:00.480 quality. Yeah. So, I mean, one of the arguments against, and I'll throw that out there, it grinds

00:05:06.720 against some people's, I mean, you're talking something along the lines of like a voucher

00:05:09.440 system. That's the term that's used. The money's following student. I think it's great. So, but

00:05:13.200 one of the things some parents get upset with is saying, well, if you're in a rural community,

00:05:16.880 you don't have the local options. My child won't be able to attend that, that diverse variety of

00:05:21.280 things. And those resources will be pulled away from our communities and they feel it's unfair

00:05:26.240 and that their child is at a disadvantage. How can you address that?

00:05:29.520 Well, so there are fewer options in rural areas because of regulation, because, because

00:05:35.680 co-location, because, uh, because these things are, are difficult to start and maintain. We don't have

00:05:42.160 that problem. So, I mean, look, when the, when the like it or low that when the government got out of the

00:05:48.320 way and, and cannabis shops were allowed to pop up, they popped up all over rural and urban,

00:05:53.600 it didn't matter. Uh, so in the same sense, when, when the government gets out of the way to allow

00:05:59.760 education options to pop up, you know, uh, India has supposedly a, uh, fully funded public system from

00:06:09.040 the top down. But what's really helped India do so well in education is they've, they've got all these

00:06:15.920 tremendously low cost private schools all over in every little town. Uh, and it's just because

00:06:21.600 the, the government, even when they might've wanted to get in the way of that, have not been

00:06:25.600 able to get in the way of it. So it's, it's let a thousand flowers bloom. And that's the sort of thing

00:06:30.160 in our rural areas, it's the same solution. And it's good. I mean, I, I, as I, you know,

00:06:34.160 I keep getting back to, I mean, they try to talk out of both sides of their mouths, the defenders of the

00:06:38.400 status quo. I don't want to label everybody. There's some fantastic teachers and people within the,

00:06:42.160 the, the unions even, and so on. But, uh, like speaking for myself, I, I was a pain in the butt 0.93

00:06:48.880 student, low marks, low marks. My parents finally outsourced it, uh, for some discipline and sent me

00:06:53.040 to an all boys school in Seanigan Lake, BC. And, you know, lo and behold in a discipline environment,

00:06:57.200 my marks shot right up. Uh, but that's me. Another student might've respond terribly in that

00:07:03.200 environment and done very poorly. And I mean, it's just that choice. It's that recognizing that there's

00:07:09.120 differences and some people are more inclined to different fields and different types of

00:07:13.120 learnings than others. And, and I, you know, I just, we're really doing our kids a disservice,

00:07:16.800 I think with a stubborn clinging to the centralized, you know, one, one, one size fits all system.

00:07:21.840 Absolutely. Absolutely. It, it, because, uh, again, as with everything else, we know that more options,

00:07:30.000 more choices, um, is the, is the way forward with better quality. It's, um, the idea, um, the idea that

00:07:39.120 one education minister or one educrat in, in Edmonton can know what's best for my child better

00:07:47.600 than I do is, is frankly insane to most parents, which is why I thought it's important to get the

00:07:53.120 parents organized around this, because I think it's just, it's just natural to most parents to

00:07:58.160 realize that, that, uh, there may, there might be people more expert in curriculum development

00:08:04.240 or pedagogy or any number of other things, but there is no expert, more expert in my four children,

00:08:09.920 except maybe my wife, but I'd even argue that, uh, but, but there is no one more expert in my

00:08:17.040 children than, than my children's parents. So getting that much inside though, uh, with the

00:08:22.880 system, say where the funding was following the student, would that apply then directly to

00:08:26.640 homeschooling if parents choose that as well? I mean that the resources coming into the household

00:08:30.480 to choose to be able to do that. Yeah. So there are, there are some home educators that don't,

00:08:36.240 don't want that. They think, they think that inevitably the money will come with more government

00:08:41.120 control. We would obviously, we would obviously say that the solution there is to trust the parents

00:08:45.760 and to, and to not bring that. But, uh, but I think, I think that Alberta's model with funded and

00:08:52.400 unfunded does make sense so that you have that option for home educators who are, who are afraid of,

00:08:57.920 of, uh, who are afraid of regulation following the money, um, that, that we have the unfunded option,

00:09:04.800 uh, for them. But, but yes, absolutely. The, um, look, um, just independent schools and, uh, and home

00:09:14.960 education between, uh, 2008 and 2018 saved the Alberta government 1.9 billion dollars. So, so look, we can,

00:09:24.320 and, and, and, and the, the government is still, so stingy with that $850 they give to funded home

00:09:29.920 educators. Um, and, and, and seems like there are almost no controls on the $30,000 they give per

00:09:36.080 student to say the Northland school division, uh, which is one of the most failing school divisions

00:09:41.120 in the province. We, that, that's obviously so upside down. So we've got to, we've got to trust the

00:09:47.360 parents, um, and recognize that we can afford to give more money and it will save money, uh, to,

00:09:55.200 to, uh, to let people have these other options and make it more accessible to more families.

00:10:02.080 So your organization now you've got a, you're traveling the province. There's a number of meetings

00:10:06.400 and events coming up. So, so what are you, what are you doing, I guess, to bring this about to

00:10:10.720 promote what you want to do? Sure. So, right. We, as you said, we're traveling the province. We just had a

00:10:15.360 great meeting here in Calgary last night. We're, uh, headed to Drumheller, uh, tonight and we've,

00:10:20.960 uh, and, and so Drumheller will be the eighth stop. We've got, uh, 16 or 17 more, uh, uh, after that,

00:10:28.480 trying to just hear from a broad swath of parents all over the province, uh, to tell us what our

00:10:34.400 priorities should be, what sort of advocacy they expect to see from us. And those meetings have, uh,

00:10:40.080 have been, uh, have been going great. And, uh, yeah, so we're the main way, the main way we're

00:10:46.160 promoting this is by email. So people can go to albertaparentsunion.ca, great website, and, uh,

00:10:53.040 sign up for the mailing list so that they can get our updates about that. Uh, but yeah, that's, uh,

00:10:58.560 uh, that, that's our, that's our main task right now is just, is just hearing from the parents and

00:11:03.280 then we'll, then we'll start the ball rolling on some of that advocacy. Great. And then with that advocacy,

00:11:07.440 well, it looks like we're a year from an election. This is provincial jurisdiction, uh, for what you

00:11:11.680 would like to see that that would involve legislative change. Then I imagine like the

00:11:16.160 Education Act or something has to be changed or amended. Uh, the goal I imagine would be to

00:11:21.600 encourage the provincial politicians and representatives to reform that system. Sure.

00:11:26.960 Yes. And, and, and, and so it is provincial, uh, but it's also hyperlocal. Some of the,

00:11:32.320 some of the issues that parents are bringing up are, are the issues for local school boards.

00:11:37.280 To address as well. So we're, um, we're, we're needing to address these things on, on both of

00:11:43.280 those levels. And obviously, uh, we see the advantage of devolving more of those decisions down

00:11:49.920 to as local of a level as possible. The kitchen table would be the most local and the best option

00:11:55.440 as far as we're concerned, but the, uh, uh, but as, but down to the individual school level as much as

00:12:01.200 possible. Uh, so that, uh, because even the school boards are, are too big for parents to feel like

00:12:08.960 they're having their voice heard, uh, it's, it's too bureaucratic. And so, uh, so yeah, we're, we're

00:12:14.880 also working on, uh, driving things down to the more local level, but obviously that some of that,

00:12:20.160 some of even that requires provincial legislation first. Yeah. And again, these school boards, I mean,

00:12:25.440 some of them, I, I, I'm not seeing it as much in Alberta, but there's questionable things, but like that

00:12:29.200 Toronto school board, I mean, they give me more, you know, foundation to rant from and they do,

00:12:34.400 they, they pride themselves on how many millions of children that they, they, they represent or

00:12:37.840 hundreds of thousands. And some of their policies are outright crazy. These are not people I want

00:12:42.960 guiding my children in, in any sort of way. And, and, uh, I, I understand they're elected,

00:12:48.000 but obviously they're not, uh, serving the parents necessarily that well. Uh, but that's a bit of a,

00:12:52.960 it actually gets back to a bit of a rant ahead at the start of the show about municipal politics.

00:12:56.080 If we don't get involved and pay attention, these fruit loops will rise to the top and they'll guide

00:13:01.360 policy. So I imagine you're, you're looking to get more civic engagement. Absolutely. Well,

00:13:05.440 one of the problems is, you know, if you want to follow the Alberta teachers association party line

00:13:11.040 and vote for the trustees they want, that's really easy. It's really easy to know. Uh, it's really easy

00:13:16.560 to know who, uh, who you should vote for if that's, if that's the viewpoint you hold. But if you, if you

00:13:22.400 want someone who say doesn't want to abolish, uh, the separate system, doesn't want to defund

00:13:29.200 independent schools, doesn't want to close down unfunded home education even, um, then, then, uh,

00:13:36.640 then where do you go? And, uh, and, and there is a knowledge gap there. So we're also working on,

00:13:43.200 on trying to close that, be able to reach out to more of these people, get them on the record on,

00:13:48.400 on the issues and make that available, uh, to, uh, regular parents who, so that, so that they can know

00:13:55.360 who to vote for in this election, because, you know, about half the people who vote for their county

00:14:00.160 counselor will vote for their public school school trustee in the same, in the same jurisdiction.

00:14:05.360 So, and it's because of the lack of knowledge. Well, that's it. I mean, you ask your average

00:14:08.800 person, I gotta admit, I don't know, ask your average person who their local school trustees are.

00:14:13.440 They probably don't even know the name. I can name my MLA. I can name my member of parliament. I can name

00:14:18.160 a bunch of cabinet ministers because I'm a political weenie, but school trustees, well, since my kids

00:14:21.920 aren't in the system any longer either, but it's still important. Sure. Uh, we forget about that. We

00:14:26.160 neglect it. And if we neglect any democratic exercise, we're not going to get a better outcome. That's right.

00:14:30.080 That's right. And, and, um, and we know, we know that the people towing the, uh, ATA party line

00:14:36.640 are going to show up at these elections. So that leads to this unbalanced, unbalanced system where,

00:14:43.120 where one side of this argument is heavily overrepresented and we, and, and, and we're,

00:14:47.920 and we're just not showing up at the table and decisions are made by the people who show up as always.

00:14:52.320 Well, it sounds like a great initiative and really interesting. So I appreciate you coming in to talk

00:14:56.720 to us about this today and maybe just one more time to the audience, you know, how can people find

00:14:59.920 you guys make sure, you know, they can catch these meetings in person if they can, and, uh, and just

00:15:03.840 get more information about your organization in general. Sure. albertaparentsunion.com, uh, .ca,

00:15:08.480 sorry, albertaparentsunion.ca, uh, is, uh, the place to find all of that. We've got an events tab

00:15:16.640 that's telling you where now we've got all our events booked. We've actually gotten venues everywhere,

00:15:21.920 but high level Lacrete. If, if anyone knows anyone there that could get us a spot, that's great. We're working on

00:15:27.840 that, uh, might, might have that done by the end of the day even, but, but, uh, uh, but everywhere

00:15:33.440 else in the province, we've got books. So you can find where we are in your area and then, uh, and sign

00:15:39.520 up, uh, sign up for the, uh, uh, mailing list so that you can know when we're having events in the future

00:15:46.320 as well. Excellent. Well, thank you again, and, uh, we'll watch your, uh, movement, uh, carefully, and I'm

00:15:52.080 sure we'll probably have you in to talk again. Okay. Thanks so much, Corey. Thank you.

Western Standard - June 02, 2022

EXCLUSIVE： Jeff Park - Alberta parents advocating for the best possible education

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