CALGARY—The United Conservative Party’s newly unveiled education platform includes the replacement of legislation designed to protect gay-straight alliances.

Speaking to reporters at the Calgary Jewish Academy in the city’s southwest on Monday morning, UCP Leader Jason Kenney said the party would replace the current School Act with the Education Act of 2012, which was voted on, but never officially acclaimed.

Under the UCP’s platform, gay-straight alliances (GSAs) would be governed by rules put in place before the NDP took power in 2015.

The Education Act says students can approach a staff member if they want to form a student organization, including a GSA, and the school’s principal shall “permit the establishment of the student organization” at the school.

Gay-straight alliances are student clubs that provide a supportive environment for LGBTQ youth and their allies.

“We support those as an opportunity for young people who might be facing bullying or harassment to get that peer support,” Kenney said of GSAs. “So, we will encourage schools to comply with the legislation.”

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But critics say the moves represents a rollback of protections for the clubs. Of particular concern is parental consent. Buried in the School Act is Bill 24, which prevents schools from notifying parents if their child joins a GSA — something advocates say is critical for kids whose families might not accept them.

Kristopher Wells, an associate professor at MacEwan University who specializes in sexual and gender minority youth issues, described the decision as “absolutely shocking.”

“Bill 24 really advanced LGBTQ protections and supports that Kenney now wants to roll back by going and proclaiming an outdated Education Act,” he said. “It’s very Machiavellian.”

If elected, the UCP is also planning an overhaul of the NDP’s incoming curriculum, and the expansion of charter schools in Alberta.

Over the course of his speech Monday morning, Kenney painted Alberta as a world leader in education thanks to its multitude of competing school options. But he claimed the NDP have put this record in danger and said the UCP, if it forms government, would encourage the development of private education in Alberta, particularly charter schools.

“It will facilitate the creation and operation of new charter schools by lifting the cap on the number of charter schools in Alberta, lifting charter schools’ enrolment caps, allowing charter schools to own property, and treating charter schools as priorities above other possible uses for surplus public school infrastructure,” Kenney said.

In response, NDP Leader Rachel Notley said charter schools take money from the public system to fund what she described as an exclusive education system. She said unlike the public system, students don’t have an inherent right to attend a charter school, and worried about the establishment of a two-tiered education system, but said they can be beneficial.

“Charter schools, in some cases where the type of program is not offered within the public school system — there may be a place for them,” Notley said at a campaign event in Calgary on Monday afternoon. “But the challenge with charter schools is that they also put much higher fees in place, in many cases, and engage in a form of exclusion.”

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The premise of parents as the primary orchestrators of their child’s education is a major theme in the UCP’s education platform. So, too, is the assumption that Alberta’s curriculum isn’t imparting crucial skills job skills on students. Kenney claimed standardized testing scores released by the province show a decline, especially in math.

“We need to stop the disturbing decline in math proficiency, as well as a decline in reading proficiency,” Kenney said, later dubbing the situation a math crisis. “We need to reinforce standardized testing to ensure that parents and teachers know where kids are at and can help those who are having difficulty in their learning.”

According to Alberta government statistics, the number of students passing Grade 6 provincial testing for English and French, science, and social studies — as well as Grade 9 science testing — is at a five-year high. Between the 2013-2014 and 2017-2018 school years, Alberta’s Grade 6 math students have seen pass rates ranging as high as 73.5 per cent to 69.4 per cent. However, Grade 9 math students have seen their results fall from 67.1 per cent in the 2013-2014 school year to 59.2 per cent.

Kenney said he would end the focus on “discovery” learning and issue a ministerial order prioritizing essential knowledge to help students develop foundational competencies.

“Basically, that means back to the basics,” Kenney said.

He said he would bring back the Grade 3 provincial achievement test, return to a 50/50 split between diploma exam results and school grades for Grade 12 students, and implement language and math assessments for students in Grade 1 through Grade 3 to allow Alberta teachers and parents to better understand a child’s progress in their earlier years.

The focus on standardized testing would also allow the government to better hold schools to account if their numbers dip, Kenney said, although he later told reporters this system wouldn’t be used to punish schools. He said school districts with unique challenges might have a reason for such difficulties, such as a high proportion of English as a second language students.

“But if you do see certain schools doing very poorly, surely we should know about that,” Kenney said. “We could work with superintendents, principals, and school boards to address it and that may mean additional resources.”

Kenney also called for the NDP’s ongoing curriculum review to be paused until more consultation can be done with parents and educators. While he didn’t say the curriculum should be scrapped outright, he suggested its social studies section was politically biased and its geography, world history, and civic literacy sections were sorely lacking, citing educational commentators. Kenney said the UCP would ensure the province’s future kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum includes instruction in financial literacy.

The party leader also promised to undertake an audit of class sizes and questioned why they’ve continued to increase over the years despite increases in educational spending. Kenney promised to build new schools and prioritize public infrastructure funding for schools and hospitals.

Other elements of the UCP’s education platform include requiring teachers to have an expertise in the subjects they’re teaching, protecting students against bullying and discrimination, and protecting “the status and funding of independent schools” in the province.

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