The new Education Act will be tabled for further review and tweaking, but on Wednesday Minister of Education Dave Hancock put it out for all to see.
The Education Act (Bill 18) would replace the existing School Act with the purpose of providing greater flexibility in education.
Alberta Education’s pet project, crafted through consultation with parents, students, teachers, board trustees and more, is three years in the making and counting.
Hancock said the current School Act is out of touch with today’s reality. He said legislation does not teach students, but people and practices do.
One key highlight among the changes deals with the province’s struggles with high school completion rates with two potential solutions.
“The first is to raise the age in which a student may drop out, so to speak, from 16 to 17,” said Hancock. “The second is to raise the age of which students are eligible for high school funding, from 19 to 21. Many students who drop out of high school return after one or two years and we want to ensure finances is not a barrier.”
It was noted 21-year-olds would not be in classes with 15-year-olds.
There are additional flexibilities within the act, making way for the technological age. And with technology in schools might also come cyberbullying, which is addressed in the act.
School boards have the power to investigate and discipline any activities on or off school grounds and hours if deemed harmful to the educational experience.
It is just the tip of what school boards would be able to do — the act gives them Natural Person Powers, much like a municipality has.
“As the School Act is written now school boards are limited to doing only those things the act specifically authorizes or requires,” said Hancock. “School boards would be free to undertake whatever activities they believe necessary to ensure the students they’re responsible for receive an education, subjected only to what the act specifically restricts or requires.”
Really, the main stipulation is that school boards engage the community in the decisions they make.
Unpopular decisions mean trustees likely do not get re-elected, said Hancock, when asked of concerns over giving school boards too much in the way of autonomy.
Superintendent selections and school closures also fall to school boards, in the act. A school board is now also able to establish a charter school.
The act also does away with the 100-year-old 2.4-kilometre walk limit.
“In today’s context, this blanket rule simply does not make sense,” said Hancock. “In an urban area a student might be expected to walk to school, even if that requires crossing a major roadway, just because they live less than 2.4 kilometres from their school.”
Bill 18 passed first reading Wednesday, but it is not expected to get a final green light in this legislative session.
“There are issues that we do have to deal with today — and some of this timeframe has been about dealing with some of the significant areas of concern, to make sure that we get it right,” said Hancock. “In many of the areas there is a lot of work that has to happen.”
