URGENT! Traditional Home Educating Under Attack! Speak up now!

Note: this email has a short version – which you are reading now – and a long version, which starts farther below.

If you have very little time, PLEASE READ AND TAKE ACTION on the short version. 

Those who are opposed to homeschooling are attacking traditional home education in Alberta…

The College of Alberta School Superintendents has filed a letter (attached) with Alberta Education making several inflammatory and unproven allegations against traditional home education.

Presentations have been made at face-to-face consultation meetings requesting that the Alberta Human Rights Act be re-introduced through education regulations.

There is an anti-home education bias in the wording of several survey and workbook questions. 

We need all home educators to speak up now! Please have your say before time runs out… 

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Having your say – THE SHORT VERSION

Before you start, here are the four things we ask you to do:

One – pray – for God’s will in everything Two – become informed – important issues are being discussed

Three – respond – from your heart, in your own words (please don’t ‘cut-and-paste’)

Four – send this to a friend – spread the word that parents need to ‘have their say’!

The Alberta government consultation period on education regulations closes at the end of October, so home educating families have only a short time left to voice their opinions on all of the things which we hold near and dear. 

This is a call to do so now!

Speak up for your own family and for home education in Alberta today and in the future.

How to speak up and what to say… At the very least, take a few minutes to respond to the online survey and send in a written submission.

Here’s how.

1 – Go directly to the online survey:

http://ideas.education.alberta.ca/engage/current-initiatives/educationactregulatoryreview/makingpowers/

Scroll down to ‘Start Survey’, answer the questions in the Demographics section and then go directly to the Home Education question.

In the Home Education question, include these points (but put this in your own words, please!):

- the question is very biased toward more regulation without referring to the current situation (a situation that works well)

- parents are recognized in the new Education Act as the ‘primary guides and decision makers’ and no regulation should limit or diminish parental rights and freedoms

- the goals of Inspiring Education include a minimum of regulation and not adding more regulation unless clearly needed (and more regulation is not needed over home education)

- the regulation should clearly spell out that contracted education specialists – licensed teachers who are themselves home educating parents – can be employed or contracted to supervise home education

- if you would like to see a “Notification only, no funding” clause within the regulations (meaning that families could choose Notification as their only requirement each  year), then please incorporate that into your response.

2 – Send in a written submission to this email address:

[email protected]

Include the same points you made in the survey and especially speak to the benefits home education brings to your family.

A personalized appeal for freedom is much more effective than a cut-and-paste response.

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Having your say – THE LONGER VERSION (With more suggestions and links to background information)

Again, before you start, here are the four things we ask you to do:

One – pray – for God’s will in everything

Two – become informed – important issues are being discussed

Three – respond – from your heart, in your own words (this is important)

Four – send this to a friend – spread the word that parents need to ‘have their say’!

The Alberta government is currently consulting on regulations that fall under the new Education Act.

That consultation period closes at the end of October, so home educating families have only a short time left to voice their opinions on all of the things which we hold near and dear. 

Some families have already voiced their opinions through the online government survey or through other methods, but many home educating families have not done so yet. This is a call to do so now!

This is your time to speak up for your own family and for home education in Alberta today and in the future.

How to speak up and what to say… The Alberta government is gathering information through several avenues: an online survey question, written responses via email, answers to a “workbook questionnaire”, and face-to-face consultation meetings.

1 – To go to the ‘home page’ for the Regulatory Review Committee:

Note that there are links on that page to the online survey and to the consultation workbook.  At the bottom of the page there is an email address and a surface mail address for sending in written submissions.

2 – To go directly to the online survey:

http://ideas.education.alberta.ca/engage/current-initiatives/educationactregulatoryreview/makingpowers/

There is some background information on this page, but you can also just scroll down to ‘Start Survey’.

You will need to complete the Demographics section and then you can go directly to the Home Education question, to the Student Records question, and to the Teacher Certification question.

Home Education question – here are some key points to include in your answer, but please remember to use your own words and refer to your own family’s home education experiences.

A) The question on home education is leading and biased towards more government control and does not include any information on the current situation – a situation that is clearly working – or the current standards of home education supervision.
B) The Alberta Home Education Association has been advocating for an addition to the home education regulation which wouldlegislatethe ability of contract home education providers (i.e. Non resident boards such as Education Unlimited, THEE, Wisdom, etc.) to continue to serve home educators.

Licensed teachers would still supervise home education, but those teachers would not have to be employed by school boards but could be contracted by school boards.  Having access to and fulfilling legislation by means of teachers who are home educating parents themselves is most effective for home educators.

By stating your support for use of contracted education services using licensed Alberta teacher as facilitators, you will provide support for this request from AHEA.

C) The legislative requirements on Alberta home educators is significant compared to other provinces.  Inspiring Education recommends that regulation only be made where it is proven necessary.  AHEA recommends you consider this: should parents be accountable to the Minister of Education, or should Alberta Education be accountable to parents?  When parents maintain control of their children’s education, how much intervention and authority should the government have over what you do with your children?  If you would like to see a “Notification only, no funding” clause within the regulations (meaning that families could choose Notification as their only requirement each year), then please incorporate that into your response.

D) The Education Act Section 32 ensures that parents are the primary guides and decision makers. Parental choice and freedoms should not be limited by supplementing regulation.

In other words, freedoms won in an Act should not be reduced or limited by a Regulation.

Student Records question – keep in mind that the records kept by home educators are very different from those kept in regular schools.  School records currently do not include a provision for parental input.  Therefore, please answer ‘disagree’ to question 41 on the consistency of records, answer ‘agree’ to question 42 to allow parental input, and consider answering question 43 with input on the need for alternate records for home educated students.

Consider the following points when answering question 44:

Currently, the student record requires information that is not relevant to home education.  The student record regulation assumes that a school is delivering the education program, but it is in fact being delivered by the parents.  It would be beneficial to step back and have a fresh look at what information the school actually needs (and doesn’t need) in order to supervise a student’s home education.

If a student goes back into the school system a new (school based) record can be created (or continued from previous school attendance), recording the kind of information schools need in order to teach.  Under the current Student Record Regulation, at the time when a student enters into a school, more information can be gained from testing the student than from home education results reported in a school-based student record.

Teacher Certification question – please respond to question 56: “Should the revised regulation require that a teacher’s certificate to teach be restricted if the teacher has not taught for 10 years?”

Please answer NO to this question and consider the following information in an answer to question 57:  a teacher’s experience does not disappear if the teacher takes time off from teaching (even 10 years or more), and since licensed teachers are required to be facilitators in order to supervise home education, it is more important that these facilitators be home educating parents themselves and not important that they have taught in a classroom (within 10 years or not).

3 – To go directly to the ‘consultation workbook’:

http://ideas.education.alberta.ca/media/81638/regulatory_review_consultation_workbook_online_version_2013-10-07.pdf

Scroll down to page 29 for the first of three questions on Home Education, and please read the background document attached for a fuller understanding of the issues.

 The first question asks about ‘competency-based learning’, something that all home educators address in their yearly Education Program Plans and through the regular Facilitator Assessments.

So, from a home educator’s perspective, nothing needs to change or be further regulated.

But an unspoken agenda here could be the instituting of standardized testing which would include home educated students.

Standardized testing has been proven to be ineffective in classrooms for judging student learning or teacher effectiveness (one reason that standardized Provincial Achievement Tests are being removed from Alberta classrooms) so there is no reason to believe they will be effective if applied to home educated students who follow individual education program plans.

The second question asks about the delegation of parental authority, with wording that suggests that this delegation is a wide-spread problem.

It is NOT a wide-spread problem at all, but a rare occurrence in Alberta.

Further, the question notes that “in many cases, funds are collected…” without providing any data or even how many cases are involved.

The fact is that there are very few cases which would fall into the category described in the question.

The vast majority of home educators do not delegate at all, and – even in the kind of situation described in the question – parents are still in charge of their children’s education and supervise the instructors employed by the ‘church or other body’.

The third question is open for further thoughts, and ideas that could be sent in via a written response could be sent in here as well.

4 – To send in a written submission by email:

[email protected]

What should you put in your written submission?

Include the same points made in the survey and/or workbook, and especially speak to the benefits home education brings to your family.

A personalized appeal for freedom is much more effective than a cut-and-paste response.

For further information and examples of other responses, see the attachments included with this email. 

5 – To send in a written submission by surface mail:

Regulatory Review Project Office 9th Floor Commerce Place 10155 102 Street NW Edmonton, Alberta T5J 4L5

6 – To get more information on the online survey and on the issues discussed in it, go to this link at the Alberta Home Education Association website:

http://www.aheaonline.com/index.php/political-updates/ealert-newsletters/archive/view/listid-2-ealert/mailid-74-ealert-regulation-review-survey

7 – To read the full text of the letter sent to Alberta Education by the College of Alberta School Superintendents, see attachment 1:  (CASS letter on Home Ed Reg)

8 – To read further information, thoughts, and ideas on the issues that home educators are facing, see attachments 2 and 3:  (12 posts on the Consultation Review), and (Background info feedback thoughts ideas from home educators)

9 – To read the letter from Patty Marler, the Government Liaison for AHEA, see attachment 4:  (Feedback letter Oct 17 2013 on Reg Review to Ed Act Reg Review Committee)

10 – Please accept the thanks from all Alberta home educators for your time and efforts, and please continue to pray for the will of God in all things.