FIRST NATIONS SCHOOL DEAL
Equality at long last, Stolte writes
A new deal for six First Nations schools in northern Alberta this week will finally bring per-student funding in line with provincial schools and support a fledging school board.
Finally. Finally. Can I say that again?
Because it’s 2019.
Canada is finally recognizing teachers and principals on First Nations reserves need just as much support and cash for books, salaries and curriculum development as those in town just down the highway.
On Thursday, federal Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O’regan will sign a 10-year funding deal for schools in what is called the back lakes region, north of Slave Lake.
That includes schools in Trout and Peerless lakes, Loon Lake, Cadotte Lake, Little Buffalo and Atikameg.
It means the federally funded schools will start getting $24,000 a student, up from the current $17,000 to $19,000 a student. That new funding is roughly equal to what Alberta Education pays for students attending nearby provincially-funded Northland School Division facilities.
More than that, the money is directed to a new locally-run school board.
Now, you might think it’s nerdy to be so excited about a school board. But this is huge. Ninety years ago, schools across Alberta operated as many tiny fiefdoms. It was awful. Elect the wrong farmer to the board and the school was chaos; teachers were sent home at Christmas without pay. The school board chairman could be a dictator.
Former premier William Aberhart forced them to amalgamate in 60 divisions in the 1930s and it was one of the best things he did.
First Nations schools once had something like a school board. They had support for human resources, curriculum development and administration from federal officials. But when First Nations rallied and won Indigenous control of Indigenous education in the 1970s, Ottawa did a dump-and-run.
They eliminated support staff in Alberta until the office basically just cut cheques, stood back and watched each one-off band school flounder. It got so bad, during one three-year period in the early 2000s, 96 per cent of Grade 9 students either skipped or failed the provincial math achievement exams.
That dreary tale is from Broken Pencils, a four-part series on First Nations education I reported on for the Journal in 2010.
Back then, the Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council Education Authority was in its infancy, a step-by-step effort to build trust and share resources between bands. It grew from three schools to six two years ago with a combined board, maintenance, human resources and curriculum development. This is the first funding agreement to cement the relationship.
“When we attack this as a group, immediately things start going right,” says Billy Joe Laboucan, chief of the Lubicon Lake Band, celebrating a chance to re-engage students in learning by starting with Cree culture and language, taught on the land.
This will be the real payoff. Each community has or is building a culture camp, where students go for a week at a time to learn on the land. Biology, math, Cree — each subject gets real as students return to a place that helps them be proud of who they are.
“Trust, integrity, discipline, respect. They all come in when you learn that way of life,” says Kathleen Laboucan, part of an elders’ advisory committee involved in building the new curriculum.
“It was a good way to forget about challenges, get back into school again,” Keane Cardinal, 17, said when I met him last November.
He already had been to camp three times the previous year. Campers got basic firearm training so they could buy their own rifles and ammunition for hunting moose. They stayed in cabins, learned how to trap and ice fish, to take apart a lawn mower and put it back together. “We learned to skin a bear and all the medicines you can use.”
“It helps with a lot of stuff,” he said. “You see the other side of (the teachers) that you don’t see in school. It made things easier.” Cardinal graduated in June. This group of six First Nations isn’t the first in Alberta to form a school board; it’s one of a few. Ottawa can help the others by being there with support and sound advice when band councils are ready to move, then structuring funding to support the best local efforts. This funding comes with support for all-day kindergarten and Cree language development.
It’s the first regional agreement signed in Alberta under the new federal commitment to fund
First Nations schools at the same level as their provincial counterparts.
I’m still baffled it took this long. This is not rocket science. It’s equality, investing in a shared future and not wasting the potential of a smart group of kids. This couldn’t come soon enough.