Western Standard - September 05, 2024


WAGNER： Ted Byfield was Alberta’s champion of choice in education


Episode Stats

Length

7 minutes

Words per Minute

128.70535

Word Count

1,016

Sentence Count

63


Summary

Ted Byfield was a leading advocate for parental rights and educational choice in Alberta in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He championed the creation of a new school act, Bill 27, which allowed for the establishment of private schools in Alberta.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You are listening to the Western Standard Podcast, and this episode features a column by Michael Wagner published on 5 September 2024.
00:00:11.360 Wagner says Ted Byfield was Alberta's champion of choice in education.
00:00:17.280 With a special event commemorating Ted Byfield's life just three weeks away, it's timely to consider his impact on the province.
00:00:26.480 Many people immediately recognized the key role he played in the creation and rise of the Reform Party of Canada and the change it brought to national politics.
00:00:37.440 But fewer probably understand his important influence on Alberta's education policy.
00:00:43.820 In particular, Ted Byfield was the greatest media voice defending parental rights and educational choice during the lifetime of Alberta Reports magazine.
00:00:54.180 Alberta experienced considerable controversy over private education from the late 1970s through to the late 1980s.
00:01:04.520 There were major policy changes, court cases, and political activities associated with educational choice.
00:01:12.160 In covering these events, Byfield used his magazine to strongly advocate for parental rights and choice.
00:01:18.980 Some of the controversies were much more high-profile than others.
00:01:24.060 One of the biggest arose because a public school social studies teacher in Eckville named James Keegstra taught his students about an international Jewish conspiracy to control the world.
00:01:36.540 This led to him being fired in December 1982.
00:01:39.780 Two, Keegstra was a public school teacher, but the public education establishment tried to redirect the negative attention of this incident towards private schools.
00:01:51.040 Since the Karklein rations, thus in June 1983, the Minister of Education created a Committee on Tolerance and Understanding, chaired by former MLA Ron Gitter, to investigate and suggest ways to promote greater tolerance in Alberta's school system.
00:02:09.500 Since May 1984, the committee released a discussion paper on private schools.
00:02:15.480 It was critical of the very existence of private schools in Alberta, even suggesting that they may constitute a threat to tolerance and democracy.
00:02:25.940 It essentially called for an end to private education in Alberta.
00:02:30.920 That was in spite of the fact the entire Keegstra episode occurred within the public school system and had nothing to do with private schools.
00:02:39.840 In his May 21, 1984, Alberta report column, Byfield commented on this paper as follows,
00:02:49.300 When Mr. Gitter's committee resumes its search for intolerance and bigotry in Alberta, we suggest they be furnished with a new item of evidence.
00:02:59.180 They might examine their own report as a specimen of what they're looking for.
00:03:03.820 In December, the committee released its final report.
00:03:18.000 The section of the report that dealt with private schools was less extreme than the earlier discussion paper.
00:03:25.160 But the committee remained hostile to private education and the report called for much stricter government controls on private schools.
00:03:34.820 Byfield's criticism of the final report was rightly severe.
00:03:39.060 He wrote that, if the committee's proposals for independent education were enacted,
00:03:44.400 they would represent the most oppressive educational legislation ever introduced in English-speaking Canada.
00:03:51.840 We have the proposal, unparalleled in the English-speaking world,
00:03:56.920 that the idea of an independent school, unsubsidized and largely uncontrolled by government,
00:04:03.380 be forbidden by law in Alberta.
00:04:05.980 We have, in sum, propositions of totalitarian implication.
00:04:11.360 Likely for the reasons articulated by Byfield,
00:04:14.560 the government was wise enough to ignore the Gitter Report's recommendations for harsh restrictions on private education.
00:04:22.720 He bustwides many other education-related controversies of the mid-1980s.
00:04:28.900 The Alberta government was also in the process of writing a new school act.
00:04:34.180 It was introduced as Bill 27 in May 1988.
00:04:39.040 Byfield supported this bill.
00:04:40.680 His May 30, 1988, Alberta report column noted that Bill 27 is plainly oriented toward parental control,
00:04:49.800 as against state control, of what a child learns.
00:04:54.000 E.G. Peeble sets out unequivocally the parental right to decide.
00:04:58.880 Parents have a right and responsibility to make decisions respecting the education of their children.
00:05:05.480 This is something public educators have long been at pains to prevent.
00:05:11.000 What your child does or does not learn, as far as the professionals are concerned,
00:05:16.060 is a matter for professionals, not parents to determine.
00:05:20.020 The Alberta Act specifically repudiates this view.
00:05:24.220 It's clear Byfield's support for the new school act was important
00:05:28.000 because his name was mentioned a number of times in the legislative debates over Bill 27.
00:05:35.000 On June 8, 1988, when Calgary Liberal M. LeSheldon Schumer
00:05:39.920 was making the point to Education Minister Nancy Betkowski
00:05:44.380 that the proposed school act would encourage the creation of new private schools,
00:05:50.160 which she disputed, Schumer said.
00:05:52.340 Well, Ted Byfield thinks they're encouraged.
00:05:56.100 Five days later, when he was arguing that the new school act was a boon to private schools,
00:06:02.060 Schumer noted that Mr. Byfield, who is a great and untiring advocate of private religious schools,
00:06:09.620 has expressed ecstasy with respect to the changes in the act.
00:06:14.640 Some just on June 17, NDP leader Ray Martin,
00:06:18.840 who claimed that the new act posed a threat to public education,
00:06:23.040 said this in support of his view.
00:06:25.600 Now the minister has her ally Mr. Ted Byfield,
00:06:29.060 who thinks this is a great thing because it's the end of public education
00:06:33.180 and the start of private education.
00:06:35.860 On June 28, Schumer once again invoked the name of Byfield
00:06:40.340 to justify an interpretation of a particular part of the new act.
00:06:44.960 He went on to say, referring to Byfield,
00:06:47.780 that while we disagree very, very strongly with respect to the direction schooling should take,
00:06:54.080 let there be no mistake that he's a very perceptive observer
00:06:57.740 of what is going on in the world of education.
00:07:02.000 See, patient Byfield was repeatedly cited in the legislature
00:07:05.920 because he was recognized as having considerable influence on this issue.
00:07:11.120 The point is that Ted Byfield was a vitally important advocate for educational choice in Alberta
00:07:18.180 during a crucial period in the province's history.
00:07:21.700 Because of this, it's probably safe to say that Alberta parents have more freedom
00:07:26.440 in educational matters today due to his efforts.
00:07:29.620 Thank you for listening.
00:07:34.340 For more, go to westernstandard.news now.
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00:07:40.500 or $99 a year for unlimited access.
00:07:43.220 Thank you for listening.
00:07:44.420 Thank you for listening.
00:07:48.480 And I'll see you next time.
00:07:53.600 Thanks.