Alberta will have to wait until next spring for a new education act as the new minister has moved to pull the bill from fall consideration.
Education minister Thomas Lukaszuk announced he was pulling the act from the order paper for reconsideration in the spring. He said he wants to hear more from people about the proposed legislation.
"It will be wider consultation. It will include stakeholders that traditionally have not been included in consultation," he said. "The education act is the most fundamental piece of legislation that a province can have and it doesn't get opened very often."
The act in the legislature now is an expansive document that envisions more autonomy for school boards, with a requirement they consult closer with the community. It would raise to 17 the age when students can drop out, and to 21 the age students can attend school free of charge.
The current act was developed from the province's Inspiring Education report, a document that was three years in the making.
Lukaszuk said he wants to make sure the government properly translated the idea in the report into the new act.
Protestant school board chair Joan Trettler said the delay isn't a major concern, but she will be watching closely to see how the bill might change. She said boards were concerned how the act would play out in a practical sense and she will be interested to see how that plays out in the new act.
"We haven't seen the regulations so that was what created some of the uncertainty; what would the regulations actually say?"
Catholic board chair Lauri-Anne Turnbull said her board was happy with the act as it is and isn't overly concerned about the delay.
"We are always happy to ensure that when this act is eventually brought to the legislature that it is has gone through the processes it needs to go to."
Secular school issue
Lukaszuk said part of the consultation process might involve re-examining a part of the bill that could have a big impact on the secular school debate that arose this year.
The bill originally had a provision empowering the minister to switch public and separate school boards, if the separate board was no longer the minority faith. That idea was taken out before the bill was introduced in the legislature.
In St. Albert the public school board is the Catholic division and the Protestant board is the separate division, because Catholics were originally the majority faith group.
"When you are discussing education, there should not be any taboo topics. We should be freely discussing matters of education that may from time to time be controversial," Lukaszuk said. "We owe it to our children to explore any and all ideas and not reject any at face value simply because they happen to be politically sensitive."
Trettler said the Protestant board very much opposed a switch, because being separate has more rights to tax, elect trustees and exist and they want to maintain those.
Turnbull is less opposed to the idea.
"We are always open to this discussion and we would certainly be willing to meet with the minister."
The opposition was less than impressed with the move. NDP Education critic Rachel Notley said the bill could have been looked at if the fall sitting hadn't been so short.
"I think it is really quite disappointing that the government feels the need to delay it again."
She said she is worried the act will die on the order paper before it can be looked at in the legislature.
"I suspect we are more likely to see an election than an act this spring."
