Calgary-Fish Creek

Today, Wildrose leader Danielle Smith and Education Critic Rob Anderson presented the Wildrose Alliance Caucus’ policy on education. The policy aims to empower parents, teachers, schools and school boards by allowing funding to follow students, encouraging choice and competition, and allowing more local decision making.

“Consolidating service delivery under one big bureaucratic umbrella is asking for waste and inefficiency,” Smith said. “The key to improving our education system is finding ways to get the resources on the front lines, where they can be allocated by parents, teachers, schools and school boards.”

In her remarks Smith praised Alberta’s School Boards and education system for the diverse choices they offer parents and students and emphasized the need for local control. “Decentralization works. Fostering a culture of educational choice, innovation and competition will benefit our teachers, parents and children for decades to come,” she asserted.

The caucus policy also highlights the need to allow the brightest students and those struggling with certain areas more freedom to work at their own pace. “We need to do more to ensure our children are able to learn at their own pace and in their own way, rather than taking the traditional one-size-fits-all approach,” Smith said. “The same principle applies to kids with special needs. We can’t just shove them into a classroom with the rest of the children and hope it works out for everyone.”

At the Ralph McCall Elementary School in Airdrie, Anderson spoke out against political interference in the sites chosen for new schools in 2008. Anderson, MLA for Airdrie-Chestermere, suggested the government’s decisions were politically motivated. “They took communities like Airdrie, Chestermere and Beaumont for granted, instead placing schools in ridings they thought were politically vulnerable to the opposition parties of the day,” he charged. “Now kids in these communities are paying the price.”

The full policy and a video are available at www.wildrosealliancecaucus.ca

Wildrose advances competent, principled and conservative policies that will lower government spending, increase economic opportunities, empower communities and strengthen individual liberties and freedoms.

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Follow the Wildrose Alliance Caucus on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WACaucus

For further information or to arrange an interview, media are invited to contact the Wildrose Caucus at:

Brock Harrison
Communications co-ordinator, Wildrose Alliance Caucus
Ph: 780-399-2890