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Parents should be freaking out right about now.

5/28/2014

26 Comments

 
But not for the reason Jeff Johnson is selling.

A public school teacher does something against the Alberta Teachers’ Association Professional Code of Conduct.  It’s bad enough to earn that teacher disciplinary action; a recommendation to have their teacher’s certificate suspended, let’s say for six years.  What does this mean for students in classrooms six years from now?

Not much, because that teacher will likely never be back in the classroom.
Jeff Johnson
Jeff Johnson, the Education Minister of Alberta, would have you believe that he’s the reason why.  This is far from the truth.

Let’s take the Education Minister out of the equation (which is not abnormal because that’s how professional discipline has been taking place for 78 years).

Let’s say that teacher, who after six years has not been teaching in public schools, wants to go back into the classroom.  They’d have to apply to the ATA to get their certificate back.  They’d have to prove that there is no chance, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they will relapse into their previous inappropriate behavior.  He or she would have to convince a panel of professionals who are under constant public scrutiny that he/she has rehabilitated him/herself so much so that he/she is worthy of that very same public scrutiny.

I can count on my index finger the number of times that someone has actually been able to convince the ATA they are worthy of that scrutiny in the 78 years the ATA has been doing this.  The ATA doesn’t want unprofessional individuals in their midst, because where the media is involved, one bad apple rots the whole bunch.

There are some caveats here; that teacher simply is suspended from teaching in public schools.  That means the teacher, who still holds a valid teacher certificate, can be hired to teach in a private school or charter school in Alberta, because the ATA holds no jurisdiction there.  They can also apply for a teaching certificate in any other province or territory because, again, the ATA holds no jurisdiction there.

But really, who would hire that potential bombshell?  The ATA sends details of their disciplinary actions to all other professional bodies in the country, just as those other professional bodies send their disciplinary action details to the ATA.  This makes that person virtually unhireable, but if a private school were to actually be insane enough to hire that person, they’d have to justify that decision to the people who pay tuition to that school – parents (oh, and the people of Alberta who fund those schools to 70% of student instructional grants).

This is the way professional conduct issues have been dealt with for decades.  The people of Alberta must recognize that it works as well, as we have one of the most enviable Education systems in the world, and that other top-notch education systems, including Finland, Singapore, and another leader in Canada in Ontario, come to the Alberta Teachers’ Association for advice and input.  The professional conduct issues are dealt with not only adequately, but in such a way that the profession in Alberta can self-advance to the top of the world.

Government interference would completely inhibit that self-advancement.  It’s why government doesn’t get involved in issues of professional discipline in the medical field, engineering field, legal field and other professions, so that they can self-govern, ensure every member adheres to a certain code of conduct, and therefore have the ability to advance themselves as well.  Further to that, the only people who can appropriately self-regulate are the ones with the expertise and knowledge in the profession.  It would be a scary scenario if people with no expertise in accounting started regulating what products chartered accountants can suggest to their clients.

The desire to advance the profession to the betterment of the public trumps any desire to represent poor professionals.  We call this “enlightened self-interest”, recognizing that serving the public good also serves our own interests.  In a self-serving way we could say “why would we want to keep around the bad, they could easily just drag us down”.  For teachers, that has been the reason we self-regulate, to get rid of the bad apples that would cast a pall over the whole bunch, such that we do indeed serve the public good, namely our students.

Insert Jeff Johnson.  Or rather, Jeff Johnson, insert yourself.

Recently he overturned 4 recommendations of disciplinary action by the ATA, saying they weren’t harsh enough.  Rather than a suspension, that as previously discussed would make the person unhireable, Johnson nominates himself judge and jury and gives these 4 a life sentence, suggesting the ATA is unwilling to do so themselves.

He never mentions the fact that the ATA has already recommended numerous other life sentences on its own.  Something about these four very serious cases, with public hearings and legal counsel present, gave the ATA the impression that rehabilitation might be possible if the offenders so chose.  History has reflected that the offenders would not choose to return to the profession, so it would be a non-issue, but in our society, even in the legal system, we allow the opportunity for rehabilitation.  However, Johnson isn’t interested in opportunities to improve one’s behavior, nor is he interested in precedent.  Just in opportunities for him to be judge and jury.  So judge he does.

The offenders are never going to teach again.  Johnson just used red ink instead of black ink on the death certificate of those individuals’ teaching careers.

The only other thing that Johnson’s decision has done is ensure the offenders can’t teach at private or charter schools in Alberta.  As many who have decried the ATA’s “soft” approach suggest, this is probably a good thing.  However there is another way of dealing with that.

Don’t have private or charter schools in Alberta.

Not only would you ensure that anyone who the ATA disciplines can’t get a job in Alberta, but every dollar of public education money would actually be spent on – get this – public education.  This has been the position of the ATA for many moons.

So, as this seems to be the latest battle in a war Johnson has declared against the ATA, one must ask themselves the question “which is more likely, that a disciplinary process that has been in place for 78 years has been defunct that entire time and that the quality of our Education system is simply a 78-year-old fluke, or that the Education Minister has a particular agenda against the Alberta Teachers’ Association.”  For the answer to this question, we must surveil the activities between the two thus far.

Johnson has gone out of his way to make the Alberta Teachers’ Association his adversary.  Had he spent even an iota of this warring time on reducing child poverty, reducing student inequality, correcting infrastructure issues, enabling the professional development of teachers, improving classroom conditions, developing a balanced curriculum, or any other issue that actually exists in education as opposed to fabricating issues, we would be looking at a vastly improved Education system.
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However, Johnson seems adamant about living up to the designation he earned as no longer having the confidence of the ATA.  Here’s how to earn such a designation.

  • Insert yourself into negotiations when you don’t even sign the contracts.
  • Breach teacher privacy by collecting private emails and using them for governmental purposes.
  • Make significant cuts to distance education programs.
  • Commission a taskforce on teaching excellence without talking to the professional body of teachers.
    • Handpick the members.  Make sure one of the individuals on the “blue-ribbon panel” is someone you worked with before with Xerox, and another person isn’t even in Education, but rather in Forestry.
    • Ensure a large portion of the panel includes PC MLAs, but don’t commit them to doing much work with it until towards the end of the process, where they can insert party ideals.
    • Don’t announce the existence of the group until months after it has already started, so that the professional body of teachers has no opportunity to get involved.
    • Make sure it is not based in research, but only in the collection of opinions.  The opinions can be collected by a sole-sourced contractor.
    • Call it a “fiercely independent” panel, but in as discreet a manner possible meet with the chair of the panel regularly to ensure the accomplishment of certain objectives.
    • Early in the process, have the panel meet with the professional body of the teachers, promise meetings for consultation to get them to stop whining about not being involved, but then never meet.
    • Do not consult the professional body of teachers about recommendations to split the professional body of teachers.
    • Do not consult the professional body of teachers about recommendations that suggest the professional body of teachers cannot regulate itself.
    • When you release it, release it to the media under the strict instruction that the media not get input from teachers.  Don’t tell the professional body of teachers about the details of the report until the last possible second to ensure they are caught unprepared.
  • Force contracts on teachers and Boards in such a way that Boards choose not to bargain at all, opting to do nothing and simply let an arbitrator decide, ruining local relationships between trustees and teachers.
  • Include a Freudian slip at a meeting of teachers by saying “the taskforce, which seemed to be an attack on teachers was never meant to be anything but.    ... I mean, uh ..."
  • Suggest that while the professional body of teachers represents only teachers, you represent students, even though students can’t vote, and you’ve never taught a class.
  • Overrule a disciplinary decision by the professional body of teachers that effectively cancels the offender’s ability to teach by making a spectacle of canceling that offender’s ability to teach.  Suggest the professional body of teachers were not being transparent enough, downplaying the facts that the process is open to the public, involves legal counsel, and that decisions are shared amongst the profession.

After reviewing all this, it becomes pretty obvious which is more likely.  Johnson has a vendetta.  No wonder the Alberta Teachers’ Association has lost confidence in him.  While Johnson says "we have to stop pointing the fingers at individuals and start talking about the issues," he has shown no interest in discussing class sizes, classroom conditions, bullying or student inequality, which are true issues in Alberta Education, not a fabrication of a non-existent problem in teacher discipline.

Parents should be freaking out right about now.  The people who interact with their children every day are having their profession attacked on a daily basis by someone in power who seems to have a vendetta.  That profession is under threats of being dismantled, and the powers that be are not talking about the things that truly affect their children.  Yup, parents should be freaking out right about now.
26 Comments
Will Munsey
5/28/2014 09:03:14 am

What do you think is the end game here and is Mr Johnson doing this on his own... or under the direction of others. Great piece. Very glad I read it.

Reply
Joel Windsor
5/28/2014 11:41:08 pm

I can only hazard speculation about what the end game is, but here's my prediction;
Johnson is looking to his political future. If he comes across as ballzy enough, he is hoping to be granted a cabinet post with the new PC leader, namely Prentice. If the PC ship even remotely begins to take on water, he's postured himself in such a way that his actions match many of the Wildrose's policies. Regardless, he has a place to go.
It's plain to me, regardless of his choices, that his assertion "he represents students" are merely words that his actions do not support.

Reply
Greg Miller
5/28/2014 01:24:17 pm

Could you share the details of the 4 teacher conduct matters that the Minister overturned? It would be interesting to know what they were and why the ATA chose to consequence them as they did. Thanks.

Reply
Wayne Lavold
5/28/2014 02:20:12 pm

Take a look at today's Edmonton Journal. Details are there.

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Joel Windsor
5/28/2014 11:36:52 pm

Hi Greg,
The Calgary Herald article I linked to had details about those four cases, and more details about cases the ATA handled is in this new article at http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Dozens+sexual+allegations+filed+against+Alberta+teachers+over+past+five+years/9848666/story.html.
Is this helpful, or were you looking for something else?

Reply
Joe Bower link
5/28/2014 01:29:15 pm

This is a must-read. Thank you, Joel!

Great content and well written. Thanks for sharing.

Joe

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Candice McLeod
5/29/2014 01:00:52 am

Great article. However, the charter school I am employed by is actually governed by the ATA. We pay union dues. I disagree with the statement that charter schools should be eliminated. We have a specific mandate and are subject to extensive evaluation. The "one size fits all" approach of public schools is clearly not working.

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Joel Windsor
5/29/2014 11:36:13 pm

Hi Candice. Do you see any scenario, even if it means significant shifts or changes, where public education can offer the same kind of choice that is offered by allowing for charter schools?
Particularly I'm thinking of the many "specialty" schools administered by Edmonton Public. They have unique programming, but are still public schools. Do you think that something like that would be workable?

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Shaheen
6/12/2014 01:31:12 am

That would be possible but would require innovation and inclusion on the part of the local public board, the Calgary Board of Education.

Bryan Burley
5/29/2014 07:24:43 am

Thank you for writing this in a way that makes sense, says what needs to be heard, and done in a very professional manner. Hope the public sees it enough to question the motives of Minister Johnson. I have shared on facebook. Do the same.

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Anastasia
5/29/2014 07:43:51 am

So, the teachers union wants to outlaw private schools. No self interest there. Please...do something right for the kids for once. Stop doing harm just to fatten the union.

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Joel Windsor
5/29/2014 11:39:47 pm

I have no interest in seeing private schools outlawed. I just don't want my tax money going to them. My public dollars should be going to public schools. With every dollar going to public education, the quality of that system will improve (if that money is being spent wisely). People who choose private schools may continue to make that choice, but not at the expense of those who can't afford it. Making every public dollar count for every child in public education is doing something right for the kids.
If the professional body of teachers is strengthened by that, what's the worst that could happen, we'll just have more amazing teachers? I'm in for that.

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Ronald
5/30/2014 02:42:36 am

Well mathematically speaking, taxpayers benefit financially from the existence of independent schools.

Independent parents and public school parents both pay taxes.

Currently 100% of your taxes, essentially, go back to public schools. For parents of kids in independent schools they only receive back around 60% of their tax dollars and the other 40% goes to public schools. They must subsidize the rest of the cost of educating their kids themselves. This actually saves the government money.

If the government takes away all funding from independent education and a large portion of students come back to the public system (most parents with kids in independent schools are not wealthy and could not afford paying $12,000 for education), you would actually need to pay more taxes for the same level of education because you will no longer be partially subsidized by independent school parents.

As a taxpayer who works in public education I think we are getting the better deal here.

Joel Windsor
5/30/2014 03:03:45 am

In reply to Ronald;
That's a very interesting take that nobody has introduced me to before. I would like to see whatever evidence exists that people who have their kids enrol in private schools pay enough school-allocated tax as to offset the per-student instructional grant. That would take a significant amount of paid tax to balance that offset, and I don't think the math would actually show that the public actually benefits. I'd be willing to be proven wrong, but by my own basic calculations, the offset is not enough to say the public benefits mathematically by funding private education.

Ronald Vanden Pol
5/30/2014 05:57:20 am

This might be oversimplified but,
About 10% of Alberta's student population goes to Charter or Independent schools.
They receive 3% of the total education budget.

If all of those schools were banned and become public schools, there would be a 10% increase in students, but only a 3% increase in funding.

Parents who send kids to independent schools are helping out public school parents, not the other way around. You don't pay for their kids to go to independent schools, but they definitely pay for yours.

http://education.alberta.ca/department/budget/studentfirst.aspx

Jen Gale
5/29/2014 08:55:29 am

Thank you so much for this. I've shared it with my staff and already had two write to the acting Premier. Misdirection and misinformation are eroding public trust in the entire system, not just teachers. Johnson's dishonesty and politics are damaging the future of Alberta- thanks for a well written counter piece!

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Mary Thygesen
5/29/2014 09:14:48 am

Thanks for this Joel. It puts recent events into their broader context. I have read and heard many expressions of concern that the ATA is incapable of doing anything but protecting its own and accusations that it sacrifices children for its own benefit. History would appear to indicate otherwise. As far as calls for more transparency go, I spoke with an ATA representative earlier today and was informed that the ATA is legally bound by privacy constraints when it comes to sharing the process and results of its disciplinary proceedings. I'm a parent and I understand the fear some express that their children may not be safe. I think if the minister chose to consult with teachers as professionals rather than dictate, these fears could more easily be allayed.

Reply
Joel Windsor
5/29/2014 11:41:16 pm

Hi Mary, I agree wholeheartedly. The ATA's legal constraints, my guess, has more to do with protecting victims. But had actual consultation with the ATA taken place, we'd be looking at a completely different scenario today!

Reply
Parent
5/29/2014 10:22:24 am

I agree that the process needs to be more open. However, Johnson is taking attention off of things like the math curriculum debacle, or common core, by bringing our eyes to this, really, (IMO) non-issue.

Reply
Joel Windsor
5/29/2014 11:45:08 pm

Hi Parent,
I would agree with you to a point. He is distracting from what's important in education. However, I'd be careful about placing too much emphasis on the math curriculum. First of all, the argument is rife with misconceptions of its own (which I will blog on later, as well). Secondly, it's a tertiary issue to the actual issues which prevent adequate delivery of any curriculum. If the Minister wants to affect real change, making good on promises for full day kindergarten, infrastructure replacements, and class size initiatives would be a good start.

Reply
Kim
5/29/2014 11:30:05 pm

I worked in a school where the principle sodomized little boys over 10 years - they got him the best lawyer money could buy - eventually he killed himself (it was the least he could do) I worked in a school where a teacher was an abusive drunk who tortured his students and even tried to strangle a child. There was no attempted to discipline or remove him from the system for his horrendous behavior - parents had to take matters into their own hands. You are protecting monsters and calling it "someones political gain" These are our children and not all teachers are angels - what then?? Like every other employee - teachers need to be accountable for bad behavior and not following policy.

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Joel Windsor
5/30/2014 03:17:44 am

Did this happen in Alberta?

Reply
Ronald
5/30/2014 03:03:28 am

"Don’t have private or charter schools in Alberta.

Not only would you ensure that anyone who the ATA disciplines can’t get a job in Alberta, but every dollar of public education money would actually be spent on – get this – public education."

I get what you mean about supporting public education, but I hope you also realize that public education does not currently fit the needs of all Albertans. Some Albertans, who also pay taxes, want other options for educating their students and until those options are available, Charter schools and Independent schools are the best option.

I think Alberta has been doing an excellent job over the years of trying to include a vast array of options for parents. The Edge schools in Fort McMurray who support parents who want a focus on Physical Education and the Edmonton Christian School program ,which supports parents who would like a faith-based program.

I think it is a little narrow-minded to say that because public schools are what you want as a parent, every other parent should support that exact same system just because it has the "public" brand.

Reply
Joel Windsor
5/30/2014 03:16:44 am

I agree with you Ronald, however I think you have some misconceptions. Neither of the two schools you listed are charter schools, nor are they private schools. They are both public schools offered in unique circumstances in their respective public school divisions. Edmonton Christian School, a school my brother-in-law attends, is in the Edmonton Public school system. Edge is in the Fort McMurray Public School system. What you have in effect argued here is exactly what I would prefer to see province-wide ... excellent choices and options offered within a public system.

BTW, I responded to your previous comment, but couldn't do it inline. Also, this comment was duplicated a few times, so I removed the duplicates.

Reply
Ronald
5/30/2014 05:45:07 am

Thanks for deleting.

I agree that I would like to see more of these different options become part of the public system. I used Edmonton Christian and the Edge programs as successful examples.

I still feel that abolishing charter schools and independent schools removes the diversity that currently exists in Alberta and would create more of a monoculture when it comes to how to best teach student. In order to promote diversity you need people who are willing to do something different and currently the best way to do that is through Charter and Independent schools.

More options, more diversity, stronger province.

Parent of a 4th grader
5/30/2014 07:27:09 am

As a parent, oddly, I'm not freaking out about Johnson overruling the ATA rulings in these instances. I am freaking out about the math curriculum, and anybody who really understands what is going on with their children and their true level of knowledge and understanding in math should be freaking out too. Myself, and a whole lot of other parents and their children are living with the fall out from this curriculum. I have no misconceptions about the math curriculum, and as far as I'm concerned, anyone who supports it and promotes it is misinformed.

Reply



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In my world, we don't accept "I can't." When you enter my world, you enter the realm of "I can't yet." It acknowledges a challenge, opens doors, and calls for action. Then, in my world, we act, and we always find success.

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