Ensuring Education

I have had lots of debate on twitter regarding the Premiers decision to cancel the Alberta Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT's), something you can not debate in 140 characters.

As a parent with three children in the K-12 education system this has me quite upset to say the least. These tests measure the curriculum standard of our education system as a whole. By administering these tests we measure many things, from the abilities of our students to how effective a school is administering the curriculum.

Many people argue that they do not do anything except place a stress on our young students. This is a completely false claim. PAT's are administered in grade 3, 6, and 9 so I do not believe that an exam every 3 years will be a life altering event that will scar them for a lifetime. Let's discuss the stress, as in grade 3 are the students really that stressed about another exam? If they truly are, who is causing this stress? Someone has to be pressing the children on the importance of doing well on these tests in order for them to be stressful, as children do not carry much stress regarding their grade at these young ages. If it is the overall grade on these tests being held as a part of their marks, simply do not apply the results to their overall grade. Let's use them as a way to ensure the minimum curriculum standard is being met. Another solution to the stress would be to hold them randomly, with the schools having no idea when they will be administered. This will eliminate the "cramming" to get ready for a tool that is designed simply to measure the students knowledge, as we want to measure what they know already.

This also measure the capabilities of our teaching professionals. By administering a PAT we can see if there is any shortcomings with a teacher, and use this data so that they can improve in areas they are not meeting the standard. Some will say that the teachers do not want to be graded or held accountable. Well I call B.S. on this one all together. I am very involved in my children's education, and I can tell you that my child's teachers want to do nothing but supply these students with the best education possible. They are people too and trust me, they are willing to take constructive criticism to better themselves. Day in and day out they are there working to teach our children, surely you can't really think they don't want to ensure they are doing their best. We do not need to hold them accountable in the sense of firing, suspending, or disciplinary action. Let's use the tests for what they should be, a learning tool for our teachers to evaluate themselves as well.

We can also use these tests to measure the effectiveness of schools. Each school is run by different people. We can look at this the same as a business. Just because they are there, it does not mean it is always being managed properly. The school is providing a service and the same as our teaching professionals, I believe that they want to ensure they are meeting the goal of educating our students. If we can measure and show the schools where improvements can be made, you don't think they would take this information and put it to good use? I know the principal of my kids school would. She works hard every day to try and make her school the best she can for her staff and students. Sometimes an outside view can help to point out where the improvements can be made. Businesses hire consulting companies all the time to look at them and make recommendations to improve the way they do things.

These are the reasons I am such a firm believer in PAT's. Measuring education at a provincial level is a must, otherwise how would we know if we are meeting the goals for our children? What is the goal of the province when it comes to education? Are all of our students not deserving of having the same quality of education, no matter which town or school they reside in? Of course they are and it should not be an option, it should be a right.

Pandering to unions on this issue is irresponsible, and in the end we will decimate a system designed to ensure our children are educated equally. I as a taxpayer, and a parent owe it to my children as well. Please feel free to comment and discuss, this is how we make improvements.

How are our students, teachers, and schools assured they are meeting the minimum provincial standards of the curriculum without a standard tool to measure it against?



Closing the Legislature

The PC government announced today that there would be a 2 day fall sitting followed by a month long break. The fall sitting ends Dec1 therefore leaving only 6 more days to sit in the Legislature.
Many people have said that it is reasonable because the party just elected a new leader to premier. For me, it's not OK. This party has governed Alberta for 40 years, so they know it would be best to finish their leadership race and be ready to govern by the time the fall session resumes. I am afraid this is a time waster as the fall sitting will accomplish nothing, and when the spring session gets ready the writ will be dropped. This ensures the spring sitting would also be cancelled, not giving a clear direction the PC party will be taking prior to the next provincial election. This is smart on the PC side of things, but as Albertans it has left us with a government without accountability for close to a year. Those looking for change, well lets just say I don't see a bit of it.
I have heard the question of how was there time. Well Redford promised in her campaign to fix election dates, this could easily be done. She promised the 107 Million back into education, could we not spend the time to figure out where the money could come from? How about the health care inquiry? Could get that on the go, couldn't we? It appears that the promises she made were too complex to actually take on in the legislature this fall, and with the likely hood of an election before June (her words) the spring sitting will be cancelled. This makes her promises certain to be unrealized by the next election, forcing Albertans to go on their gut on whether to trust her or not.

Give it Some Thought Premier Designate Redford

First off Premier Designate Redford, a sincere congratulations on your win. Also may I add my deepest condolences on your loss of your mother.

I followed the PC Leadership race with great interest, but in the end could not vote for any of the final three candidates.There was nothing inspiring, new, or a way of thinking that would improve the great province we live in. Throwing the money back at education may have appeared to help in many peoples eyes, but now we have the reality of dealing with the band aid fix plus the burden of coming up with the money when the government is already running in a deficit situation is not exactly a stellar move in my eyes. Our education system overall is fine but we need it to be secular, completely public. Having two boards such as the Catholic board causes duplication and extra financial burden to manage. It is also unfair to the many other religious groups out there that feel the same entitlement. Maybe having one PUBLIC system is a way we can try and help with funding.

The main reason I couldn't place an X beside your name on the ballot is quite simple. You are too close minded at the thought of private health delivery. Yes I know it is a can of worms to open this topic, and it could possibly be political suicide, but are you there to fix things or be a populist? This is a question only you can answer. I am not saying to go to a style of U.S. health, but to give the taxpayers the service we all want and deserve. My significant other has many health issues which I pay for service out of my own pocket right here in Alberta already. I feel that my government has left us behind as far as pro-active care. Here is one example, our public system family Dr. put in an MRI request to look at the tissue damage to get to the bottom of excruciating pain. The first available time we received was 5 MONTHS wait. In the meantime she was put on many expensive prescribed medications. Aside from the money the medications did something else, damaged her liver. Nice now we have another health issue to deal with and more medications. Am I angry, well yes I am and here is why. Upon looking around I found a private wellness clinic called pro-vital. They told me there was nothing they could do to have her in any quicker but mentioned a private MRI place called Mayfair Diagnostics which is a private business offering MRI's. The wait...well 48 hours. Of course I paid the $600 to get it done. Now our family Dr. had the information required to forward her to a needed specialist, funny how that works huh. My question would have to be why my tax dollars paid to your government to support public health care is not looking out for Albertans. If there is such a backlog for these services and there are places available to expedite them, why is our public system not allowed to utilize these private clinics. I pay for the service through my taxes.

Having a closed mind to different ideas doesn't make a leader, it makes a follower. Public delivery of these private services is not wrong. If there is a waiting list of months for people suffering and you can eliminate reactive care, it simply makes sense for government to fund this and get Albertans the care they need, pay for and deserve. By not having an open mind you take away from improving a system and cost more in a long run. BTW you have an extra liver? Point made. 

Change Again? It's a Circle!!

Alberta has accomplished so little in the past 4 years with the PC party. In fact I wonder if we accomplished anything outside of #bill44.
Lets take a look at it. Premier Ed campaigned on raising royalties so Alberta could receive their "FAIR SHARE". Less than a year later oops lets tweak it. 6 months later oops lets tweak it some more. Within another 6months Holy Shit we better give them some incentives to come back. Hmmm full circle and then some considering our take now is less than the royalties we received under the old regime.

Then there was the cutting of the PDD in which the GOA decided to take $11M worth of funding from our most vulnerable. Oh the outcry, followed up by a decision to back peddle on this one as well.

Lets not forget the Teachers contract that was signed and agreed upon. Until of course the average weekly earnings increased too much for our GOA liking. Well yep you guessed it, another circle in backtracking.

Now we can move on. Oh maybe not so fast, the huge wage increase the GOA gave themselves seems to be back on the table yet again at election time. How timely

What about the $107 Million in cuts the Tories made in education cuts. Well it is election time and the Tories will help Albertans by restoring the funding that they personally decided to cut. Geez they deserve a huge thanks. I don't think so.

The cookie monster fiasco (Duckett) and the huge payout and decentralization of our health boards. Yikes

Bill 50, and 19 now seems to be back on the debate table again as well. This is a Government that has wasted our time and taxpayer money. They obviously have no clue on which direction they want to go. Spending years screwing up and then more time and money to fix it.

I guess in short if you want to keep in a Government that goes in circles year after year, vote for the Alberta Progressive Conservatives. This new leader that was a cabinet minister in this same messed up government claims change. Great! I don't see the difference because every decision this government makes seems to need change. How about the new changes from the "old boyz club", Redford places Hancock as party whip and Horner as deputy premier, oops right no change there. Hooray something didn't change. What a sad system of governing.

UPDATE LMAO: Seems another "change" Redford has now reconsidered her cancelling of the fall session in the Legislature. It will now be back on. Phew...this may be the post that never ends ;)

Congratulations, It's seems the same!!

Well it's all over. After a gruelling 5 months of campaigning the PC party in Alberta elected it's leader, and it was not the front runner Gary Mar. Alison Redford was elected by the party to serve as premier.

I would have never guessed her in the come from behind win, but if one was to watch her strategist Stephen Carter, he has a knack for selling a candidate to full potential. Once again he showed his political brilliance, much the same as his come from behind win in electing Mayor Nenshi in the Calgary municipal vote. I will stop here on Carter so his head doesn't swell and explode if he reads this rag.

If I had to pick a turning point in the Redford campaign it would be when her mother passed.On the long drawn out campaign of politics, she had the opportunity to showcase herself as a human. With the double edged sword the timing was both great and awful, and she showed a great deal of personal strength by continuing on without stumbling. The other hot issue would be her garnering the support of the unions with her funding reinstatement for education. This one if anything should be a political hot button, spending a $100M of taxpayer money to push her over the top.

Now it's no secret I don't support Redford politically, but in all fairness I could not support Mar or mini Ed, Doug Horner.This campaign of change that they ran was a complete and utter joke. Tell me how a Cabinet Minister that has sat in cabinet and voted on the direction for the last 4 years equals change? Unfortunately there are no real records of her votes, as I would be interested to see where she stood before the "change" campaign came in. First day after being elected Redford was quick to add that she would be suspending the fall session of the legislature. So much for dealing with the issues transparently. Now we will sit until spring and have the promises made rammed down our throats debate free, and no transparency to be seen. Is this the type of change we can look forward to? One would have to guess the listening to Albertans is now done since my MLA is not allowed to speak on my behalf. A right she took away when she suspended legislature.

Politics will be interesting in the near term, especially with a provincial election looming for June of next year. One has to question the amount of support the PC party really has these days, I have seen the question asked alot of the Wildrose. Those pesky turnout numbers in the PC leadership race tell quite a tale. With 85 polling stations averaging a mere 918 votes each has to be of concern to the PC's. Alison's win was no landslide, having to go to a second ballot she won by a minuscule 19 votes per polling station. Is there really the support for her and her style of politics? Was Mar showing too well and many didn't go to the polls based on his healthy lead? Did the small "c" even bother to vote, or did they leave the party already? There were only half the amount of votes cast in comparison to the 2006 election.

So many questions to answer and June is not far away. Will we have the time to see Redford in her full capacity by the next election? Is the PC party fractured? I couldn't tell you, but politics in Alberta is interesting again.