Matthew Lau: Government control of education is better than union control |
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Matthew Lau: Government control of education is better than union control
Alberta's Bill 25 aims to keep ideology out of classrooms. Ideally, parents should control curriculum. But they need help against radical unions
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Last week, the Alberta government proposed new legislation, Bill 25, “to remove politics and ideology from classrooms.” According to the press release, the bill: reinforces expectations that classroom instruction be politically neutral and respect diverse student perspectives; prevents school boards from taking positions on political or social issues not related to their role; and protects teachers who do not want to participate in activities that conflict with their personal beliefs.
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In response, the president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) said the government’s suggestion teachers were not already presenting issues in a politically balanced way was “offensive.” But it’s clear the government is right. The teachers’ union and some teachers are not politically neutral in the classroom.
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Just one example: the feature story in the Fall 2025 issue of ATA Magazine, written by its managing editor, advises that “teachers have a vital role to play in the global effort to address climate change by educating students.” The article instructs teachers as follows: “when seeking out climate change information, look for groups whose programs include … attention to the root causes of the climate crisis in political, social, economic and colonial systems and the role of the oil and gas industry within these systems.” It also suggests “a focus on intersectional approaches to climate justice with particular attention to decolonization and Indigenous justice.”
This is left-wing activism, not real education. Another example: in 2024, the ATA wanted the provincial curriculum to acknowledge the “sovereign nature” of Indigenous communities and teach that “prior to colonization and in contemporary society, many cultures have had roles for people who identify as nonbinary.”
Bill 25 does expand provincial government control over education, which is generally undesirable. But if the choice is between government control and teachers’ union control, government control is likely the lesser evil. At least in theory, though not always in practice, politicians are accountable to the public. They can be left-wing, right-wing or somewhere in between. Not so with teachers’ unions, which are invariably far to the left, completely unaccountable to the public, and operate with the primary purpose of expanding their budget and power at the expense of taxpayers and parents.
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Evidence that the ATA has too much power was afforded by its disruptive strike last fall, which ended in its being legislated back to work. The strike lasted three weeks despite the government offering a 12 per cent raise over four years and the hiring of 3,000 more teachers and 1,500 more educational assistants.
When the government required parental consent for children under age 16 to change their pronouns or even their name at school, the teachers’ union protested that, too. The government wanted parents to have decision-making ability over important issues related to their children; the union apparently felt control should rest with teachers instead.
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In public education, there are three possibilities as to who has control: parents, the government or unions. Ideally, control over how children are educated rests with the parents. The best way to ensure it does is through policies that strengthen school choice and give families as many options as possible. To its credit, that’s the direction in which the current Alberta government has been moving.
Until the recent provincial budget, Alberta funded families who sent their children to private schools at 70 per cent of the per-student cost of government-run schools, but did not cover any private school expenses for buildings or other infrastructure. Now the budget sets aside $90 million over three years for capital funding for private schools, in effect allowing a greater proportion of the taxes paid by families who choose private schools to follow their children to those schools. The government says the new funding will create up to 6,000 new school spaces.
Despite that, the vast majority of students remain in government-run schools. And while centralizing decision-making in the provincial government is usually a bad way to increase parental control, at least through Bill 25 the government seems to be doing what the vast majority of parents want. In 2024, a Leger poll commissioned by the Fraser Institute found that: 88 per cent of Alberta parents believed the provincial curriculum should focus on facts, not teachers’ interpretations and opinions; 74 per cent believed teachers should either present both sides of controversial issues or avoid them entirely: and 86 per cent believed schools should provide advance notice when controversial topics will be discussed in class.
More provincial government control isn’t great, but it’s better than union control. Overall, Alberta’s Bill 25 seems to be a positive change.
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