Education

Our official K-12 school curriculum embodies the state’s answer to the question: What must children learn so they can function appropriately as adults in our society?

Educators know all curricula need timely revision and many are concerned about the most recent draft K-6 curriculum proposed by the government of Alberta.

Alberta already has the most choice in K-12 education in Canada, with private school pupils being funded to the tune of 70 percent per pupil compared to public school pupils, more than any other province.

Recognized as the provincial organization representing parents on school councils in Alberta, Alberta School Councils’ Association (ASCA) has worked alongside other education partners and stakeholders to advise the Ministry of Education on matters related to the K-12 Re-entry plan.

Post-secondary institutions in Alberta have experienced substantial reductions to their Campus Alberta Grants from the Government of Alberta. In the case of the University of Lethbridge, these reductions represent slightly more than 20% of the university’s government operating grant.

Liberal Education is rooted in an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change.

A number of factors contributed to the creation of Canada’s first public community college here in Lethbridge. A growing population, the prosperity of post-war southern Alberta with the size and wealth of the City, and the lack of post-secondary educational opportunities in the southern part of the province all factored into the formation of Lethbridge Junior College as it opened in 1957 with 38 students enrolled for classes in space leased at Lethbridge Collegiate Institute high school.

Alberta has a complex educational system that includes public schools, charter schools, and private schools. Recent action in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and by some school boards, as well as the current review of legislation, demonstrate a need for a provincial conversation.

A motion to mandate that Alberta schools support the creation of student-led gay-straight alliances (GSAs) in schools where students have requested it, was defeated in the Alberta Legislature early last year.

(Special Session in partnership with the Lethbridge Public Library) Wednesday, March 26, 2014 Time: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Venue: Lethbridge Public Library Theatre Gallery, Main Branch, 810 – 5th Ave.

Alberta has one of the most diverse school systems in the world. Its public schools offer a range of specialized alternative programs, from sports academies, to language immersion programs, to faith-based schools.

Alberta’s March 7 provincial budget featured a seven percent cut to basic operational grants for post-secondary institutions, compounded by revocation of an earlier promise of a 2% increase.

Many First Nations people are reacting with anger and disappointment to the Federal Government’s proposed education legislation for First Nations that recently was released by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, Bernard Valcourt.

When the Lethbridge School District Board of Trustees approved the 2011/12 updated budget, it reflected the final student enrolment as of September 30, 2011 and the additional funding provided for by Alberta Education this past October when Premier Alison Redford restored $107 million to school boards province wide, approximately 60% of the amount that was reduced in the government’s spring budget.

To date, there has been very little work done or literature available on the stories, the narratives of experience, of those Aboriginal individuals who have journeyed through post-secondary, Eurocentric paradigm-based Western education successfully.

Although the earliest schools in Canada were religious, public education has been dominant for much of our history. But, as in other sectors, the private sector has been encroaching in the public domain.