Freedom Flyer November 1996 Cover

Freedom Flyer 30

the official newsletter of the
Freedom Party of Ontario

November 1996




Article electronically reproduced from:
October 7, 1996


Give parents more control over education

By Robert Vaughan

The writer is a trustee with the London board of education.

In his column, Critics should visit classroom (Sept. 26), Bill Brock, chairperson of the London board of education, identifies concerns parents and taxpayers have about public education. Poor literacy results, inadequate report cards and lack of community involvement have been problems, and Brock is correct when he says they are being addressed and improved.

He fails to recognize, however, that the improvement is a result of outspoken critics. Brock is also wrong to believe everything is now fine and all the critics should just go home and let the experts handle it.

If troubles of the past teach us anything, it's that education is not something the public should blindly trust to bureaucrats or politicians like Brock or me. Ideally, education should be controlled by parents.

The London board has taken years to recognize the legitimate concerns of "critics" like parents and taxpayers. Recognition should not go to the trustees nor to Brock. It should go to the vocal critics and to out-going director Darrel Skidmore. Trustees have regularly rebuffed attempts by individual trustees, including myself, to increase parental involvement.

The trustees (including Brock) turned down a request to survey parents about phonics or "whole language." Also, when the board was asked by a provincial task force led by David Crombie for its opinion on boards placing questions on the ballot during municipal elections, its draft response questioned the "intent" of such a suggestion and expressed concerns over "frivolous questions."

MOTION DEFEATED: Brock speaks of looking "forward to hearing from school councils on how we can improve." Yet, when I made a motion to have the newly formed school councils advise the board on the changes to the sex-ed curriculum, it was defeated by Brock and other trustees. Apparently, school councils are asked for their opinion as long as it's not a controversial issue.

As for visiting the classrooms, before becoming a trustee I was invited by the former principal of St. George's Public School to see how happy the children were in his "whole language" classrooms. When he learned I was aware of much of the academic research surrounding the debate over whole language /phonics, he withdrew his invitation. Apparently, only the ignorant may visit classrooms.

Brock speaks of the community in developing curriculum. But how the community is engaged? Public forums are strictly controlled events where public involvement is limited. The restrictions are, by and large, a consequence of ministerial directives and inflexible administrators. The results are predictable - the status quo.

In my two years as trustee, I have found teachers to be hard-working and caring. Most of the educators at the board offices are sincerely interested in the education of children. Unfortunately, I have also discovered frustration among many teachers, arrogance on the part of some administrators and contempt for parental choice with some trustees. Many feel the "system" must survive at all costs - the community be damned.

CHANGE: With every new provincial government there comes change. But when we are stuck with only one education system that is tightly controlled by bureaucrats, change, if it leads to choice, should be embraced. In our system there can only be one educational philosophy that "wins." With such a monopoly you can count on every parent and interest group going to battle for control of that prevailing philosophy at every opportunity. The system is a political and educational quagmire and children and parents are caught in the middle.

The answer is not the status quo, as Brock appears to suggest. The answer is to remove education from the political process and offer parents and educators real choice. The Ministry of Education is right to examine all alternatives for reform. Education should be taken out of the hands of bureaucrats and politicians and given back to parents and teachers. Education should not be funded through property taxes, but out of Queen's Park, where your education tax dollars follow your children, whether they go to public or private schools. The ministry should set standards but still allow individual schools to choose how and what they teach based on demand and interest.

If the provincial government acknowledges parents should have the final say in the education of their children, and trusts them to make the right choices, it would end the constant political wrangling over teaching methods, report cards and the like. If that acknowledgement means there would no longer be a need for school boards and trustees like Brock and myself, so be it.




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