Education
School board trustees should embrace genuine diversity and avoid unnecessary legal fights
From the Fraser Institute
Too many Canadian school boards are getting sidetracked by unnecessary legal battles rather than focusing on educating students.
Case in point, Carolyn Burjoski, a former teacher in the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), recently won a decisive legal victory when Justice James Ramsay rejected WRDSB’s attempt to quash Burjoski’s defamation lawsuit and awarded her $30,000 in legal fees.
Burjoski had sued her former employer because the board chair publicly accused her of transphobic behaviour for raising concerns during a board meeting about the sexualized content in a number of school library books. His public attacks on Burjoski exposed the school board to a defamation lawsuit.
In his decision, Justice Ramsay found that the WRDSB chair “acted with malice or at least a reckless disregard for the truth.” Furthermore, Ramsay explained, nothing Burjoski said during the meeting could reasonably be described as transphobic. Given these facts, it comes as little surprise that the judge ruled decisively in Burjoski’s favour.
Things could have been handled much better by the board. Had the trustees stayed focused on education, they likely would not have gotten sidetracked by Burjoski’s comments. They could have simply thanked Burjoski for her input then gotten back to work on education policy. Instead, the board chair picked a fight with one of his own teachers and led his fellow trustees into a losing legal battle. No one can seriously think this was in the best interest of students, particularly since school taxes were spent on legal fees rather than classroom resources.
Sadly, WRDSB is far from the only school board where trustees are distracted by non-educational issues. In Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Board, trustee Francine Champagne was suspended three times in one year for making controversial social media posts and failing to submit paperwork. The board even filed a legal application to have Champagne removed from office for allegedly violating the Public Schools Act. However, Champagne resigned before the court case began, which was fortunate for the board, since it no doubt saved them considerable money in legal fees.
Parents and other taxpayers don’t elect school trustees just so their hard-earned tax dollars can be squandered on legal fees. Getting into unnecessary legal fights is a bad idea for any school board.
Fortunately, it’s not difficult for school boards to stay out of court. Refrain from defaming employees who make presentations at public meetings, stay focused on educational basics, and allow for diversity of thought on controversial issues. A board that does these things will save money in legal fees, and have a better learning environment for students.
Besides, there are real issues to be addressed in public education. For example, data from the Programme for Student Assessment (PISA) shows that academic achievement is on the decline across Canada, particularly in reading and math. If students don’t learn these fundamental skills in school, not much else that happens there will matter. Improving classroom instruction should be a top priority for every school board.
Trustees would also be wise to crack down on the growing incidents of violence in many schools. Empowering teachers and principals to remove persistently disruptive students from the classroom is essential. Teachers must know that their employers have their backs when dealing with tough situations. Safe and orderly classrooms are a prerequisite to student learning.
And when controversial issues do come up during board meetings, trustees should take a measured approach and acknowledge that Canadians (including many of their own employees) hold a variety of views on topics such as how much gender and sexuality content should be in library books accessible to children. There’s no need to force everyone into the same mold.
If trustees are serious about promoting diversity, they must remember that this includes diversity of thought, not just diversity of appearance. Genuine diversity means that everyone, students and teachers alike, are free to express different opinions without fear of negative repercussions.
Education suffers when school trustees lose sight of their primary mission. The lessons learned by WRDSB and other embattled school boards should be a clear sign to trustees across Canada—stay focused on educating students.
Author:
From the Fraser Institute
According to a new study published by the Fraser Institute, if Canada wants to remain competitive with emerging economies around the world, we must increase our math, science and reading scores—and not simply pursue high levels of “equity and inclusion” as the primary goal for our schools.
Indeed, highly equitable and inclusive schools—with declining PISA scores, as is currently the case in Canada—do a disservice to students and society at large.
Why? Because higher test scores translate into greater “knowledge capital”—that is, the full body of knowledge available to an economy—and boost economic growth (and, incidentally, the tax revenues that fund our schools).
Indeed, the goal should be equitable access to a quality education. And the most realistic and meaningful way to measure student progress is through PISA tests, which every three years assess the performance of 15-year-olds worldwide in core subjects of math, science and reading rather than the limited curriculum objectives used in provincial testing, which can only show progress or decline within individual school systems. In today’s world, where competition is truly global, we must know how our students and schools perform compared to their peers in other countries, especially the “Asian Tigers” of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Tiawan whose rapidly growing economies have been driven by rising PISA scores.
Obviously, countries with higher test scores can teach other countries how to improve—although there are limits and some traps here. Attempting to cut and paste Singapore’s or Korea’s much more meritocratic systems of highly competitive student assessment and selection would be impractical and impolitic in Canada. Even so, policymakers should consider reinstating more meaningful meritocratic norms in Canadian schools to encourage and recognize academic achievement. Nothing succeeds like success, except recognized and rewarded success.
Closer to home, other provinces could benefit from considering why Quebec is such a stellar performer in math and why Alberta has the highest overall PISA test score average of all provinces.
But fair warning, recent attempts at school improvement in Canada show that top-down one-size-fits-all changes—including extending compulsory attendance, reducing average class size and tinkering with course content—have had little positive effect on student performance, although they may please teacher unions. If policymakers want to achieve more equitable success for more students, they should introduce more flexibility, school autonomy and choice into our top-heavy centrally regulated school systems. In this respect it may be no accident that the three highest performing, mid-spending provincial K-12 education systems (Alberta, Quebec and Ontario) offer relatively high levels of school choice, although of quite different kinds.
Equity and inclusion are noble goals, but they shouldn’t interfere with student progress. There’s too much at stake, for students and the country.
Author:
Investing in innovation at Red Deer Polytechnic |
Alberta’s government is expanding student capacity and creating a modern learning environment at Red Deer Polytechnic that will help graduates succeed in the economy of tomorrow.
To support emerging opportunities for students, Alberta’s government will invest $12.9 million to expand the Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing Technology Access Centre (CIM-TAC) at Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP). CIM-TAC is an applied research and innovation centre that gives companies access to state-of-the-art prototyping and manufacturing equipment, along with a multi-disciplinary team with the expertise to turn brilliant ideas into market-ready products.
As Alberta’s economy grows and diversifies, job creators will increasingly seek employees with the skills required to work in advanced manufacturing.
Construction will begin in early 2025 and will increase the centre’s applied research, education and training capacity. The expanded CIM-TAC will grow to provide work-integrated learning opportunities for an estimated 450 post-secondary students and training through workshops and events to an additional 2,000 students annually by 2030. Additionally, more than 500 junior and senior high school students will take part in dual credit programs at the CIM-TAC.
“Investing in this expansion of CIM-TAC will give students at RDP access to cutting-edge technology and skills to succeed in the economy of tomorrow. The strategic investments we’re making in Budget 2024 are part of a forward-looking path to support the goals of our post-secondary institutions, grow Alberta’s economy and create jobs.”
“The expansion will allow Alberta-based manufacturers across multiple sectors to have greater ability to develop, test and scale their ideas. Students will be engaged at the forefront of made-in-Alberta technologies and manufacturing solutions.This investment will help meet high demand from entrepreneurs and industry for applied research and will take the facility beyond its current capabilities to become an advanced technology training and hands-on learning centre.”
“This expansion project will build on the CIM-TAC’s 15 years of success and leverage the centre’s industry partnerships and manufacturing expertise to provide even more capacity for applied research, as well as education, training and work-integrated learning opportunities for students. We thank the Government of Alberta for this investment that will benefit not only RDP students and researchers, but also the entire central Alberta region and its critical industries like health care, agriculture, energy and construction.”
“Manufacturing and advanced manufacturing are driving job-creation, economic growth and made-in-Alberta solutions that improve the lives of people around the world and right here at home. The funding to expand RDP’s CIM-TAC is an investment that will allow Alberta companies greater access to the tools, technology and next generation of skilled talent that will allow our industry to solve real-world challenges, develop better products and ultimately increase productivity.”
Quick facts
- The expansion of CIM-TAC at RDP will support a variety of sectors through advanced manufacturing capabilities, including energy innovation, transportation, aviation and agriculture. The centre will also support RDP’s future expansion into more medical device manufacturing and health-care innovations to support both patients and providers.
- RDP’s expansion of the CIM-TAC will grow the facility’s footprint from 15,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet.
- The CIM-TAC currently houses $7.6 million of advanced manufacturing equipment.
- In 2022, RDP attracted more than $2 million in applied research investment. RDP also completed 64 projects for 57 companies and participated in more than 1,300 engagements with industry partners.
- Since the CIM-TAC’s inception in 2009, RDP has supported more than 300 industry partners (including repeat clients).
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