Alberta Politics: Social-conservative groups gear up for stealth takeover of Alberta school boards in coming elections

There’s plenty of chatter on social media about the plan by the United Conservative Party’s powerful and secretive Take Back Alberta faction to stealthily take over the province’s school boards in the next round of board elections and set the stage for indoctrinating children with social conservative ideology.  Alberta Education

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Alberta Politics: UCP leadership candidates’ cagey answers at forum sponsored by teachers’ union include promises to delay new curriculum

Hey! Never mind defunding the police. What about defunding public education?  Complaining about a call by Public Interest Alberta to phase out funding for independent schools, Danielle Smith once asked: “How about we go the other way?  Candidate Daniel Smith not so long ago during the time she worked as

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Alberta Politics: Spinning delay as a favour to teachers and a response to COVID, Kenney indicates he’ll press on with controversial curriculum

The way Jason Kenney told the story, Alberta parents and teachers would like his United Conservative Party government to “go a bit slower” rolling out the new primary school curriculum it introduced in late March to widespread opposition. To those who have been following the controversy created by the curriculum

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Alberta Politics: Teachers overwhelmingly reject Alberta’s draft K-6 curriculum, but that’s unlikely to change Jason Kenney’s mind

It won’t come as a shock to anyone in Alberta that the Kenney Government’s draft Kindergarten-to-Grade-6 curriculum is a dangerous and ideologically motivated dud, or that most professional teachers despise it.  Still, kudos to the Alberta Teachers Association for actually going to the trouble of commissioning an exhaustive professional review

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Alberta Politics: Teachers give Education Minister Adriana LaGrange a 99% non-confidence vote – but it’s Jason Kenney who’s driving the school bus

Ninety-nine per cent of the delegates to the Alberta Teachers Association’s virtual annual representative assembly voted Sunday to affirm a motion of non-confidence in Education Minister Adriana LaGrange.  There’s no question that as education minister Ms. LaGrange has possessed a sort of reverse Midas touch – virtually every policy the

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Alberta Politics: The punchline to the bad joke that’s Alberta’s new primary school social studies curriculum: Mart Kenney

Alberta’s new social studies curriculum is pretty obviously a bad joke, but at least it’s got an entertaining punch line. To wit: Mart Kenney. The controversial Mart Kenney song’s record label (Photo: Screenshot of Youtube video). Curriculum experts and accredited teachers were shocked by the thoroughly politicized draft curriculum document

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Alberta Politics: Handpicked UCP advisors call for mention of residential schools to be erased from primary grades’ social studies curriculum

A recommendation by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s handpicked curriculum advisors to strip all mention of residential schools from the province’s Kindergarten-to-Grade 4 curriculum “will perpetuate systemic racism through whitewashing,” says Melissa Purcell, the Alberta Teachers Association’s staff officer for Indigenous education. “The Indian Residential School system was created to erase

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Alberta Politics: Education Minister’s K-12 curriculum news conference by turns bizarre, deceptive, incoherent, and a comedy classic

No one who watched Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s news conference on the United Conservative Party’s plans for Alberta’s K-12 curriculum yesterday could come away with the impression our province’s education system is in capable hands. Putting aside the government’s intention to send students back to schools ill prepared for COVID-19

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Alberta Politics: Education minister changes tune on masks when schools reopen, but credits ‘emerging evidence,’ not public pressure

According to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, it turns out “emerging evidence has made it clear that masks can play an important role limiting the spread of COVID-19 in our schools.” Who knew? Those were pretty much the first words out of Ms. LaGrange’s mouth as yesterday morning’s news conference on

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Alberta Politics: The students are revolting – and so is Trustee Michael Janz as far as Alberta’s education minister is concerned

The students are revolting – and as far as Alberta’s education minister is concerned, at least one of the school trustees is too. This Friday, students from all over the Edmonton area will abandon their classes to participate in the global strike for climate action. Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government,

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Alberta Politics: UCP slaps Alberta Teachers Association … probably not for the last time

Almost completely missed in media coverage of Friday’s purge of NDP appointees to agencies, boards and commissions by Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government was the revelation that the same day the government abruptly cancelled a three-year-old memorandum of agreement with the Alberta Teachers Association to co-operate on curriculum development. While

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Alberta Politics: Religious schools defy David Eggen; John Carpay hangs in; and Jason Kenney isn’t the Decider after all!

NDP Education Minister David Eggen’s warning yesterday he could defund 28 religious private schools if they won’t obey the law and implement diversity policies and UCP Leader Jason Kenney’s refusal to expel a high-profile social conservative party member who compared pride flags with Nazi swastikas seem like separate stories. They

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Alberta Politics: University top brass salaries capped; David Suzuki to get honourary degree from U of A! Stand by for fireworks!

PHOTOS: High-profile B.C. environmentalist, scientist, author and broadcaster David Suzuki. Below: Alberta Advanced Education Minister Marlin Schmidt, University of Alberta President David Turpin (Photo: The Gauntlet), and United Conservative Party Opposition Leader Jason Kenney. The Alberta government has put a much-needed cap on the salaries of top university administrators, providing

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