The Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership will wade into the ongoing debate over secular education in Morinville when it hosts a public forum next Thursday.
The foundation is the legacy of former Alberta MLA Sheldon Chumir. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to provincial human rights laws and engaging the public in discussion on relevant topics.
A trio of guest speakers will offer their views at the Morinville Seniors’ Rendez-Vous Centre at 7 p.m. The floor will then be opened up to any individuals, groups or community members to provide input. A dessert reception will follow.
Former Alberta education minister David King, Frank Peters of the University of Alberta and Linda McKay-Panos of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre are scheduled to speak.
“We thought it might be helpful to try to give people an opportunity to have an informed public discussion by bringing in some speakers to give information about the history of how we ended up with this situation and the legal reality [of] School Act legislation in Alberta,” said David Shapiro, research associate with the foundation.
Shapiro said this particular scenario in Morinville is quite unique.
It has generated an outcry from some parents in Morinville, including a few families selling their homes, and has left Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools — which has jurisdiction over Morinville — with the task of finding a secular education alternative.
Also planning to speak May 5 is Jennifer Love, one of the parents seeking a non-Catholic education for her children.
“It’s disappointing for us not to have a public option,” she said. “When we moved here we were told there were four public schools. It wasn’t until we went to enroll our child — two years after we’d moved here — that we found the public schools were actually Catholic schools.”
Love has no quarrel with the skill of the teachers — she said they are fantastic. For her it is an inescapable religious permeation that causes concern.
“It’s all intertwined, and it’s becoming very confusing for our kids,” she said.
Greater St. Albert Catholic has been invited to the forum as well, but David Keohane, superintendent for the school division, doesn’t anticipate sending a representative. He respects the foundation’s right to host the forum, but does not see much point in the school division taking part.
“We would not be within the same philosophical framework … the foundation and the participants do not support the concept of a faith-based education,” he said. “The conclusion has already been made by the panelists and the foundation that’s putting this discussion forward.”
Shapiro said the uniqueness of the situation makes it interesting from the foundation’s view.
But more than that, he said, the situation potentially raises a larger question.
“What is it Albertans want public education to look like? This is a bit of an avenue for a broader conversation, into the nature of public education and the aims of it.”
