Have Your Say on Books in School Libraries

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has just announced that the provincial government wants to hear from you on the types of books that should be available in school libraries!

The link to the survey is at the end of this email, and we encourage you each to give your feedback to the government.

When we shared the Government of Alberta survey on cellphones in classrooms, we broke every record for feedback, with more than 68,000 of you participating in that survey.

We at the Alberta Parents’ Union think this issue is also of huge importance to parents, so we expect another record-breaking response.

Parents need to have confidence that our kids are not being exposed to material we find inappropriate for them.

A K-6 school library will not, and could not, have every book ever written.

But, that means someone has to choose which books it will have.

And then, the inevitable next question is: who will that be?

Unfortunately, that means that this issue isn’t just about books - it’s about control.

Too often, the person choosing has been of an activist bent.

In a monopolistic, one-size-fits-all public system, curation decisions in school libraries are winner-take-all.

In particular, monopoly public schooling itself would make such disagreements inevitable.

Curating decisions will be made, and one vision of what literature children should be exposed to will triumph over another.

So, yes, we need to be active and participate in these discussions, and we strongly encourage you to fill out the Government of Alberta survey here:

But, it's also why, as much as we can, we should make it possible for families to choose a school that aligns with each family's values.

This lowers the stakes of these fights and lets more of us be winners and take just what we need for our own kids.

As in so many discussions about education policy, school choice is the best tool to peacefully resolve this issue.

We can tell you: you are not alone in caring about this.

A whole lot of us do.

And we, here at the Alberta Parents’ Union, won't let them silence us.

Speaking Clearly Where Parents Have Spoken Clearly,

-Jeff and the Alberta Parents’ Union Team

P.S. We're making parents impossible to ignore. Too often, before, education policy has been made and covered as if only the teacher union and the politicians’ voices mattered. We are changing that. And our voice gets a little stronger each time one of you joins. To do so, click here.