News

While Alberta school boards are constantly telling parents they don't have the funding to pursue the priorities we care about, they spend tens of thousands of dollars on reading assessments, resources, and training that hurt kids' progress in reading and poorly align with the curriculum.

The Alberta Parents’ Union is not, at our core, a school choice organization.

Rather, we are a “parents know better than politicians” organization, on a wide array of issues including, but not limited to, school choice.

We think that assuming politicians are the real experts in what kids need - instead of their parents - is a big mistake.

The way the Alberta government funds schools is unfair.

But, if you only read media headlines, it’s probably not unfair in the way you think.

It’s become fashionable in some political circles recently to claim that there’s no such thing as parental rights in Canada.

Last week, the Alberta government announced a series of policies to address the contentious issues of sex and gender in the classroom.

Elk Island Public Schools is at it again.

After removing a trustee under questionable circumstances, they're now refusing to hold a by-election to replace him!

Once again, a school board is defending leaving thousands of parents unrepresented by arguing that a by-election would cost too much.

In this case, "too much" is a cost of just $40,000, when said school board has millions in reserves and an annual budget of over $208 million.

We say “once again” because this is becoming an all-too-predictable pattern for school boards across Alberta.

Are education standards falling?

Is Canada falling behind other countries in key subjects?

Is Alberta falling behind other provinces?

Are children learning what previous generations were expected to know?

Can we see patterns in what kind of instruction improves understanding over time?

Can we tell if new reforms don't live up to their promise or even make things worse?

Who really runs your school board?

Elected trustees, or unelected school division bureaucrats?

Today's email is a bit technical, but we think it's really important that someone is paying attention to these details, and shows just how important our mission here at the Alberta Parents' Union is.

Thankfully, there are tonnes of parents like you helping us keep a close eye on what's coming up on school board meeting agendas.

And after some digging into a concern they brought to us, here's what we found out.

In the vast landscape of societal concerns, few issues are as universally important as the state of our education system. 

The education system serves as the bedrock for shaping the minds that will lead our communities, drive our economies, and navigate the growing complexities of the future. 

All too often, I encounter the sentiment that once a person's children have grown or have graduated, they no longer see the relevance in advocating for a better system. 

In 1950, the United States Air Force had a problem.

Its airplanes were falling out of the sky way too often.

Despite it now being peacetime, far too many of the Air Force’s pilots were still dying - often, inexplicably, in training.

A team of researchers at Wright Air Force Base in Ohio discovered the cause.