Re: Commentary: Schools facing ongoing challenges
For many years our public school system has been under attack and underfunded by our provincial politicians. Oh, they talk a “good game” about supporting public education, but their actions don’t match their words.
During the last administration, the minister of Education refused to listen to teachers since the teachers were highly critical of her proposed curriculum changes.
Her behaviour was just like our former minister of health who wasn’t listening to the concerns of doctors and nurses.
Oh, and remember how our provincial politicians were negotiating “secretly” with mining companies despite oppositions from ranchers, farmers, environmental groups, etc.
We still have politicians who prefer to listen to “key” stakeholders – energy companies, private school operators, farmers, mining companies, land developers, etc., all private enterprises – but has little interests in listening to the concerns of public servants.
Ironically, our elected officials are actually public servants, but they don’t view themselves as such. They view themselves as business people, and they seem to believe they know more than the public servants.
Consequently, we see low morale among our public servants, and we see a shortage of public servants such as teachers, doctors, and nurses. It’s hard to be inspired when provincial government politicians won’t listen to its workers.
We have politicians who wish to “impose” their political ideology upon the people without consultations or without referendums – on schools curriculums, academic achievements, a provincial police force replacing the RCMP, a provincial pension plan, supporting private schools and charter schools, supporting private health care over public health care – despite objections from municipal governments and from its citizens.
While Alberta’s population increases every year, we have politicians who continue to spend more “public money” on private businesses.
We have “unqualified” (untrained) politicians telling public servants how to do their jobs. Imagine an airline passenger telling a commercial pilot how to fly a plane.
Imagine a patient telling a doctor how to “practice” medicine.
Imagine a corporal telling generals how to fight a war (Oops! Hitler did that and guess what happened to Germany in the Second World War).
Bottom line: Just because someone is elected to office doesn’t mean that he or she is an “expert”, except in getting elected.
George Thatcher,
Olds
