Edmonton's Enterprise - Edmonton Public Schools system

School Administrator, May, 2001 by Emery Dosdall

An 81,000-student system stares down the threat of charters and vouchers by finding a good fit for all sizes

If you were to ask me why parents in Edmonton are turning to the public education system first when they think about educating their kids, I'd tell you it's because we've adapted to the needs of our changing community. We've introduced some two dozen new, innovative programs, we continue to focus on student achievement and, as a result, we've seen positive results.

But this has not come without serious challenge.

Six years ago we saw a change in Alberta's School Act that featured full funding for charter schools and a defacto government-funded system of vouchers. Our district funding was cut by 12.4 percent and local school boards, including ours, lost their authority to access local property taxes.

The provincial government's decision was made to appease lobby groups that feared the public education system had become a monopoly and no longer was responding to public expectations. School board trustees believed this change would introduce further levels of accountability for public school boards. They argued that parents needed more choice for their children, and they fully expected a charter school option would lead to a major rush by single-interest groups to start their own schools. Alberta's minister of education was so convinced of this that he suggested a cap of 15 charter schools for the first year. The cap has yet to be reached.

Alternative programming has a positive impact on student achievement, our top priority. Our community, much like populations throughout the United States, is extremely diverse, and public education should reflect that diversity. This comes down to the fundamental belief that to serve all children, we need to meet their unique needs.

When I became superintendent of the Edmonton Public Schools in 1995, we already offered our students some programs of choice. This same year the provincial government introduced the changes in funding and passed a bill that increased the government funding of private schools, making them eligible to receive 60 percent of what is given to public schools.

We were, for the first time, in a position where we would compete with charter and private schools for our enrollment and our funding. And we welcomed the challenge.

A Collective Purpose

I am convinced public education is fundamental to any democratic society and thriving economy. I also believe every child should be a part of the public education system and that the system should serve all students and serve them well. Our students follow the provincial curriculum, they learn value systems and they can feel as though they are part of a system.

In Edmonton, we have 209 schools, which share a purpose, collective values and support. Each school can respond pro-actively to parental demands and students' needs while working toward district standards and a common curriculum. This is not rocket science. Serve your customers and they will remain with your system. If you don't satisfy them, someone else will.

My first response to the new legislation was a proposal to my board of school trustees that we not just publicly complain, but that we aggressively respond to the legislative changes. We believed our system would serve kids as well, if not better than any charter or private school. Even at that time we were a district of choice with more than 20 years of experience in alternative programming and open boundaries. Now we just had to prove ourselves to the naysayers.

As a further response to the legislation, I asked my board to pass a motion stating that available space in our schools, as well as closed facilities, would not be leased to private or charter schools. They also reaffirmed the Edmonton Public Schools as a "district of choice" and emphasized this commitment in our mission statement.

We were innovative, energetic and most of all entrepreneurial. I met with our central staff and reinforced our position, encouraging them to be open to parent and community groups seeking additional choices. I challenged my team to be creative and flexible as they approached existing private schools to discuss opportunities available to them under the public system.

Alberta's charter school legislation boosted the profile of new program choices. In the first year, six community groups seeking charter school status approached us about forming alternative school programs within the district. The legislation had brought decreased funding overall and placed a cap on district administration costs. Therefore, these requests and subsequent negotiations put significant stress on our staff. Even so, four of the six proposed programs were accommodated as alternative programs within our district.

The two remaining groups-one representing an existing private school, the other affiliated with an inner-city social agency-chose the charter school route. Because the legislation enabled the private school to obtain full funding while maintaining the governance control and programming status quo, the private school had no interest in pursuing alternative program status. At the time, we didn't believe we could support the other alternative program, as it would be housed in the social service agency. Consequently, it became the second charter school.