Provincial Election 2012

April 10, 2012

Party leaders and their education platforms

Alberta Party

The following is based on information from the Alberta Party website, www.albertaparty.ca.

Glenn Taylor, leader of the Alberta Party

Glenn Taylor is leader of the Alberta Party and the party’s candidate for West Yellowhead. He is a former mayor of Hinton and served as vice-president of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association. He has served on numerous boards, in executive and director positions.

Education platform

The best education system requires stable, predictable and long-term funding. We will prioritize funding for primary and postsecondary education so that students excel in a competitive world.

Albertans can be among the best-educated people in the world. However, Alberta has the lowest high school completion rate and the lowest participation rate in postsecondary education in Canada.

1. Alberta’s long-term prosperity requires that all Albertans complete high school. We will

develop and implement a comprehensive strategy involving all stakeholders to make our high school completion rate the highest in Canada within 10 years;
make all-day kindergarten available to families in all school districts;
support programs that help children living in poverty to receive a healthy meal at school;
restore funding for special programs that assist children with learning difficulties;
remove the age limit for funding for adults who wish to obtain a high school diploma;
work with First Nations communities and federal government to develop and implement a strategy to increase the high school completion rate among First Nations communities within 10 years; and
pass Bill 210, Early Childhood Learning and Childcare Act, which will establish a comprehensive framework for coordinating government services and programs that have an impact on early childhood development.

2. Communities make our schools better. Schools are stronger when the community has an active role in its local school. We will

establish mechanisms that facilitate public participation in decisions concerning local schools;
encourage and facilitate the ability of local stakeholders (municipalities, school boards and community groups) to share resources in the construction and operation of new schools; and
provide operational funding that facilitates the use of school facilities outside school hours by community groups, which will turn our schools into community hubs.

Alberta Liberal Party

The following is based on information from the Alberta Liberal Party website, www.albertaliberal.com.

Dr. Raj Sherman, Leader of the Alberta Liberal Party

Dr. Raj Sherman grew up in the B.C. interior. He earned his MD from the University of Alberta, specializing in family and emergency medicine. He served as president of the Alberta Medical Association’s Section of Emergency Medicine and entered Alberta politics in 2008, campaigning for action on emergency-room wait times and overcrowding. In 2010, Sherman criticized the government for emergency-room wait times and was suspended from the Progressive Conservative caucus. He sat as an independent MLA until his election in 2011 as leader of the Alberta Liberal Party. Sherman continues to practise medicine on weekends.

Education platform

Investing in our education system is the surest and most-cost-effective way to plan for Alberta’s future. And with a few common-sense programs, we will better prepare the leaders of tomorrow and will ease the pressures put on students and families.

Alberta Liberals believe the full cost of education should be borne by the Alberta government.

We will end school fees.

We will provide teachers with a $500 tax credit in recognition of their almost universal personal cash contribution.

We will invest in providing a faster track to good careers, higher incomes and lower dropout rates for students who wish to pursue trades.

We will better tie education to your community by making schools community hubs, where everything from social services to community health can be found.

And we will ensure all students are given the opportunity to excel. Students of all ages and incomes should feel welcome and safe while at school. No child should have to deal with bullying. No child should have to learn on an empty stomach. The benefits of nutrition on education are well documented. Alberta Liberals will start a school lunch program, initially rolling it out in areas of greatest need.

Alberta Liberals believe no investment has a better return than an investment in our education system and our children.

Alberta New Democratic Party

The following is based on information from the Alberta New Democratic Party website, www.albertandp.ca.

Brian Mason, leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party

Brian Mason studied political science at the University of Alberta. He worked for Edmonton Transit Services and served as Edmonton city councillor for 11 years. He was first elected MLA in 2000, representing Edmonton Highlands-Norwood. He was elected leader of Alberta’s New Democratic Party in 2004.

Education platform

We will stand up for affordable, quality education by putting a stop to school closures, school fees, childcare shortages and rising university costs.

New Democrats will make Alberta’s prosperity work for young children by

funding more childcare spaces to help meet demand;
stopping school closures in mature neighbourhoods by revising the funding formulas and backing projects that fill unused school space;
prohibiting school instructional fees;
introducing voluntary full-day kindergarten;
phasing in a targeted school lunch program for elementary students; and
introducing a childcare system that moves toward a maximum daily cost of $25 per child, with a $9 per day cap for after-school care.

There’s no more important investment in our future than the education of our children. We can start today to

commit to working with school boards to ensure adequate and stable funding for the next four years;
implement the recommendations of the Learning Commission to reduce class sizes in Grades 1–9;
introduce voluntary full-day kindergarten;
ensure adequate funding of special needs students (inclusive education) and English as an additional language;
prohibit school instructional fees;
phase in a targeted school lunch program for elementary students;
revise funding formulas for schools to ensure that vital schools in mature neighbourhoods are not closed; and
create a $50 million New Beginnings Community Fund to work with schools, municipal governments and other partners to support effective ideas to bring new life, energy and activity to mature neighbourhoods.

Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta

The following is based on information from the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party website, www.votepc.ca.

Alison Redford, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party

Alison Redford was sworn in as Alberta’s 14th premier on October 7, 2011. Redford attended school in Calgary and obtained a law degree from the University of Saskatchewan. She served as senior advisor to then prime minister Joe Clark. She practised family law in Calgary and served in South Africa as an advisor on constitutional and legal reform, where she shared an office with Nelson Mandela. She accepted assignments in Bosnia, Uganda and the Philippines and helped to administer Afghanistan’s first parliamentary elections. Redford was elected MLA for Calgary-Elbow in 2008 and was named minister of justice and attorney general.

Education platform

We are committed to creating an inclusive education system that inspires and enables all students to achieve success and fulfillment as engaged thinkers and ethical citizens with an entrepreneurial spirit. We recognize that parents play an important role in shaping the way their children view learning. The PC Party is committed to creating a stronger voice for parents in the education system.

To date, the Progressive Conservative Party has

restored $107 million in education funding;
established, in Budget 2012, three years of funding commitment for education;
committed to reviewing school fees to ensure that local school boards are not charging fees for standard public education;
committed, in Budget 2012, to building a total of 28,750 student spaces over the next three years;
committed to building 50 new schools and to upgrading and revitalizing 70 more in communities throughout Alberta; and
committed to provide every teacher in the province with a $500 tax credit for expenses incurred to support students.

Wildrose Alliance Party

The following is based on information from the Wildrose Alliance Party website, www.wildrose.ca.

Danielle Smith, leader of the Wildrose

Danielle Smith was elected leader in 2009. Before that, Smith was with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. She has media experience, served as a CBE trustee and director of Alberta Property Rights Initiative and Canadian Property Rights Research Institute. She holds a BA in English and a BA in economics from the University of Calgary and obtained public policy experience with the Fraser Institute.

Education Platform

Ensuring children have access to a world-class education is one of the most important roles government can play in building Alberta.

Local decision making

We’ll depoliticize school construction by allowing locally elected school boards to decide where schools should be built, instead of government bureaucrats in Edmonton.

Freedom to choose

We’ll empower public, Catholic and charter schools by allowing funding (operational and maintenance) to follow students to the school they attend.
Schools will be made accountable by posting graduation rates and subjects’ assessment results, so parents can decide where to send their children.
We have no plans to change the 70 per cent funding figure that private school students receive.

Respecting individuality

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and learning—we’ll help children to learn at their own pace and in their own way.
New technologies and teaching methods make it possible to tailor learning to individual student needs.
Students won’t be moved on to more advanced material until they demonstrate a strong understanding of the subject matter.
We’ll work with teachers and stakeholders to replace PATs with a new standardized model that evaluates a student’s actual improvement and comprehension of subject matter.

Supporting special needs students

We’ll assess a child’s special learning needs as early as possible and mandate funding to follow that student to whichever school that child’s parents decide is best.
We’ll end the practice of forcing special needs students into the same classrooms as regular students, unless it is clearly beneficial.
Abolishing school fees
We’ll ensure that no parents pay mandatory fees to send their children to school.

Teacher-candidates in the running

Teachers and retired teachers running in the 2012 provincial general election were invited to submit information to the ATA News. Announcements inviting submissions began in the January 31 ATA News and were simultaneously posted to the ATA website.

The invitation applied to

Association active members in good standing;
incumbents who were ATA active members in good standing at the time of their election to the Alberta legislature;
ATA life members; and
other members of the ATA who have maintained the highest level of membership available to them.

As of press time, Thursday, April 5, 2012, the following teacher-candidates had submitted their information.