Parents have been ignored for too long

Re. “Special interest groups wade in to school trustee elections,” Oct. 7

Since when are parents considered a “special interest group?” Parents for Choice in Education was incorporated in 2012 by parents who began to recognize their voice as the primary stakeholder in education was being ignored.

Instead, decision making has increasingly been centralized in the hands of Alberta Education, the Alberta Teachers’ Association and other organizations that seek to enforce curricula and activities in schools.

The result? There has been a dramatic drop in skills outcomes in areas such as mathematics due to the illconceived methodology of discovery math. Report cards offer little to no clear assessment of where students rank in their subjects. And the focus on essential education skills outcomes is taking a back seat.

School board policies and legislation are increasingly leaving loving parents out of important conversations that schools are having with vulnerable sexual- and gender-minority children.

Parents have been ignored for too long. They have become increasingly aware that their removal as a central authority and decision-maker with regards to education is putting their own children at risk intellectually and emotionally in Alberta schools. Donna Trimble, executive director, Parents for Choice in Education