My oldest boy is starting school this coming September and
I’m one proud Poppa. Until I hit University all my educational experience had
been with Nova Scotia public schools; so being a Dad doing his due diligence, I
have been trying to familiarize myself with the New Brunswick education system.
I have been to the kindergarten orientation events, met a few teachers and have toured my son’s school a few times. I know it’s early in the process but I’m happy to say that I haven’t seen anything that has set off any alarms as of yet – at least at this level.
I wish I could say the same about the provincial education system. To explain why, we have to switch gears here for a second - so you may want to grab a beverage.
I have been to the kindergarten orientation events, met a few teachers and have toured my son’s school a few times. I know it’s early in the process but I’m happy to say that I haven’t seen anything that has set off any alarms as of yet – at least at this level.
I wish I could say the same about the provincial education system. To explain why, we have to switch gears here for a second - so you may want to grab a beverage.
If you read every section of the Times & Transcript, you
may notice that I have another gig writing movie reviews once a week in the
Metro section. A have an affinity for documentaries and a few years ago I
reviewed one about the deplorable state of the US education system called
‘Waiting for Superman.’ It’s a high
level view of how there are basically two tiers to the US education system:
privatized schools that arm their students with a proper education at a cost, and the public school system which is grossly
underfunded and severely lacking in the tools to provide its students with the
opportunity to learn that every child deserves.
How did this happen? Well, there’s a lot of money poured into the US education system – over $800 billion a year. With all that money floating out there, it was only a matter of time before corporate interests decided they wanted to grab a piece of the pie. Make no mistake about it, big business is king south of our borders and if there’s a buck to be made they’ll snatch it up in a heartbeat – even if it means dumbing down generations of kids to do it.
The US education system was long considered too difficult an area for big business to break into because of bureaucracy, politics, and the sheer number of individual schools that would have to be dealt with – but they didn’t quit trying and an opportunity emerged.
How did this happen? Well, there’s a lot of money poured into the US education system – over $800 billion a year. With all that money floating out there, it was only a matter of time before corporate interests decided they wanted to grab a piece of the pie. Make no mistake about it, big business is king south of our borders and if there’s a buck to be made they’ll snatch it up in a heartbeat – even if it means dumbing down generations of kids to do it.
The US education system was long considered too difficult an area for big business to break into because of bureaucracy, politics, and the sheer number of individual schools that would have to be dealt with – but they didn’t quit trying and an opportunity emerged.
With advice and assistance from big business communities
under the guise of goodwill, many states began to issue standardized testing
for all schools within their borders. The criteria for schools to get a good
score were extremely high; so many schools fell short of the benchmark. Panic ensued and many ‘failing’ schools
scrambled for ways to get up to snuff. Guess who swooped in to get these
schools up to speed by way of private ownership? It was the business sector, of
course - coming in on a white steed to fix a problem they created.
So now, you’ve got public schools falling further behind because of increased funding going to these new private “enriched” schools, and a slow move toward every school in the land becoming ‘pay to play’ – at least the ones you would want to send your children to.
So where am I going with this?
I’ve been reading stories about Premier David Alward awarding a 2.5 million dollar payment to a program called Elementary Literacy Inc. to combat the issue of low literacy rates among elementary school students in our province. On the Elementary Literacy Inc. web page, they describe themselves as a private sector initiative armed with a staff of “trained volunteers” that will work one-on-one with children in need of additional help with reading. Now I’m completely on board with kids being given every advantage with developing their literacy, but I’d be a liar if I said my spider-sense wasn’t tingling off the charts right now.
I have a few questions and they’re questions everyone should be asking. Questions like why this spending of taxpayers’ money was never put out for public discussion. Back in October, schools in the province were told they may not receive their full annual operating budgets due to cuts, but the provincial government finds this much money to give to a private company for a literacy experiment? In a country where scrutiny of government spending is at an all-time high, people just seem to be shrugging this off like it’s no big deal and I don’t know why.
So now, you’ve got public schools falling further behind because of increased funding going to these new private “enriched” schools, and a slow move toward every school in the land becoming ‘pay to play’ – at least the ones you would want to send your children to.
So where am I going with this?
I’ve been reading stories about Premier David Alward awarding a 2.5 million dollar payment to a program called Elementary Literacy Inc. to combat the issue of low literacy rates among elementary school students in our province. On the Elementary Literacy Inc. web page, they describe themselves as a private sector initiative armed with a staff of “trained volunteers” that will work one-on-one with children in need of additional help with reading. Now I’m completely on board with kids being given every advantage with developing their literacy, but I’d be a liar if I said my spider-sense wasn’t tingling off the charts right now.
I have a few questions and they’re questions everyone should be asking. Questions like why this spending of taxpayers’ money was never put out for public discussion. Back in October, schools in the province were told they may not receive their full annual operating budgets due to cuts, but the provincial government finds this much money to give to a private company for a literacy experiment? In a country where scrutiny of government spending is at an all-time high, people just seem to be shrugging this off like it’s no big deal and I don’t know why.
I’d also have to ask why, with so many qualified teachers
out of work in this province, the $2.5 million wouldn’t have been spent within
the education system on a program that would get licensed teachers teaching
again – even on a part-time basis to staff a literacy program. If my children needed some assistance with
their reading, I’d feel quite a bit better about it being delivered by a
licensed educator as opposed to a volunteer possibly being given a crash course
from the Hooked on Phonics program.
I could be completely off base folks, but along with the push for standardized testing across the province from Halifax based ‘think tank’ AIMS (Atlantic Institute for Market Studies) a few years back, this gift to Elementary Literacy Inc. is bringing public education and the private sector a little closer to each other than this Dad is comfortable with. It may be an entirely benevolent effort, but recent examples in the US school system have me worried.
I’m normally a very easygoing sort of fellow, but there is nothing more important to me than the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of my children. My boys are bright, capable kids with an entire world of opportunity ahead of them. They’re not commodities to be exploited by private enterprise for a quick buck, especially through our education system.
In the US, they’re still waiting for Superman to solve their education crisis. We need to make sure we never need him in New Brunswick.
I could be completely off base folks, but along with the push for standardized testing across the province from Halifax based ‘think tank’ AIMS (Atlantic Institute for Market Studies) a few years back, this gift to Elementary Literacy Inc. is bringing public education and the private sector a little closer to each other than this Dad is comfortable with. It may be an entirely benevolent effort, but recent examples in the US school system have me worried.
I’m normally a very easygoing sort of fellow, but there is nothing more important to me than the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of my children. My boys are bright, capable kids with an entire world of opportunity ahead of them. They’re not commodities to be exploited by private enterprise for a quick buck, especially through our education system.
In the US, they’re still waiting for Superman to solve their education crisis. We need to make sure we never need him in New Brunswick.
