The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Former education minister receives this year’s Public Education Award

Laura Harris
ATA News Staff

The presentation of the ­Association’s Public Education Award to David King came with a disclaimer.

Teachers not old enough to have known King to hold any position other than executive director of the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta were warned of the trauma they might experience if they learned of King’s past as Alberta’s minister of education. Greg Jeffery, district representative for Edmonton District, who presented the award, cautioned, “For you to learn about that side of David at this juncture might put you in the same boat as Luke Skywalker when he found out Darth Vader was his father.”

It was a playful jab at King, who is well known by teachers who taught during his reign as education minister for his notorious efforts to strip the Alberta Teachers’ Association of its professional functions and reduce its status to that of a union only. But by the time Jeffery finished his remarks, everyone attending the Annual Representative Assembly was aware of King’s journey from the dark side and appreciative of his prolific efforts over the last 20 years to support public ­education.

King, in accepting the Public Education Award, reciprocated the Assembly’s appreciation warmly, genuinely and, perhaps, surprisingly.

“I am not a teacher, although I wish I could be,” began a humble King, who went on to praise teachers and the ATA for the role they play in furthering the interests not only of public education but of democracy.

“Teachers—you and the colleagues you represent—are doing the most important ­organized work that is done in this or any other society,” King said. “I often hear people say that health care should be our most important priority. Very simply, without education we wouldn’t have nurses, or ­doctors, or complex pharmaceuticals, or sophisticated hospital buildings.”

Speaking admiringly of his wife, Clare, King made clear her influence on his views of teachers and teaching. An emotional King said that through her 35 years as a kindergarten and Grade 1 teacher, “Clare brought me to understand teaching in my heart.”

He described teaching as a “great moral venture.” It was a fitting tribute from the man who cancelled his long-standing membership in Alberta’s ­Progressive Conservative party in protest after the party introduced legislation that took away the power of public school boards to collect education taxes. Throughout his address he wove the themes of respect, community and the important work of teachers, and summed up his perspective by emphasizing that “democracy and education are welded together: they will soar or sink together.”

King’s words were warm, wise and well received by the ­Assembly. If he ever existed in the form of Darth Vader, that was in a galaxy far, far away. It was a deserving David King who was presented with, and graciously accepted, the 2010 Public ­Education Award.