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Education crisis on horizon?

Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson must be wondering what to do now.Having secured the agreement of the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) to a deal that has some elements they were seeking — a focus on conditions of practice in response to a clear set of data that shows that teacher workloads are “out of whack” with any reasonable

Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson must be wondering what to do now.

Having secured the agreement of the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) to a deal that has some elements they were seeking — a focus on conditions of practice in response to a clear set of data that shows that teacher workloads are “out of whack” with any reasonable expectation of work/life balance and unsuited to the kind of curriculum transformation needed — but not others, he now is facing a rebellion by school boards.

Red Deer, Edmonton and Calgary public boards, which are the actual employers of teachers (the government is the partial paymasters), have rejected the deal. Other school boards are likely to follow. Alberta has 62 school boards (in itself a strange thing for a population of 3.7 million), all of whom need to say “yes” to the deal for the deal to stick. The Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools board says it will support the deal.

It is also not clear what the teachers will do. The ATA has recommended acceptance but the membership is now voting on the deal and many suspect that the vote will be close.

How did we get here?

Over a year ago, the former minister, Dave Hancock, had the basic deal in place that would have settled this before the last election. There was a tentative deal in place with the ATA, Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) and the government. He took it to caucus, but the majority party said no. Two Education ministers later, any prospect of a deal with teachers fell apart if it involved the ASBA. The ATA walked away from the tripartite talks.

Johnson then offered the teachers a deal which the ATA rejected, leaving the ASBA out of the negotiations. (The ASBA has no legal standing from a bargaining point of view.)

He then drafted a bill that required teachers to accept a deal, thereby overriding the bargaining process and current employment contracts. Looking at this ministerial dictatorship and leadership by fiat, the ATA’s leadership determined to fight another day with a playing field they understood and, with intelligent ministerial leadership, could manage. They backed off, approached the minister and struck a deal.

Part of the deal seeks to resolve the workload issue through an “exceptions committee” to review teacher concerns. The tentative contract determines that a teacher’s classroom time will be capped at 907 hours. In a variety of provisions, teachers concerned about their workload can file a concern and an exceptions committee will determine whether the teacher has a case.

Workloads and conditions of practice, together with a need for investment in professional development aimed at making the transformation of Alberta schools as envisaged in Inspiring Education possible, were the key issues from the ATA’s point of view. To see why, look at the study by Linda Duxbury of teacher workloads published recently.

The rejections open the Pandora’s Box for legislated bargaining and the creation of a provincial super board for education, with local matters managed by zone leaders. It happened in health care and could happen here. The key advantage of a single employer for teachers at the provincial level is the reduction of the bargaining cycle and the standardization of the basis for employment. The key argument against it is that is destroys the idea that no two schools are the same and that the management of education is best done nearest to the student.

Given the instincts of the Redford government, who believe that command and control is the “new black” of management, we should not be surprised if the rejection of the teachers’ contract by school boards has larger consequences. The government is already giving them clear instructions on how to reduce their costs.

Johnson sees himself as CEO of a large, multibillion-dollar corporation (he is ex-Xerox). If the “branches” of the corporation are not falling into line, the first instinct of such leaders is to reorganize the corporation. With a premier seeking to show that she can be tough with unions and determined to be right in both action and ideology, we should not be surprised to see the government take on the boards and change their mandates — the boards owe their entire existence to the provincial government.

We can expect fireworks.

Stephen Murgatroyd is a Troy Media columnist (www.troymedia.com).