Minister axes Provincial Parent Voice

[Catherine]

Hello - I read today in Moira MacDonald's column that Minister Wynne has axed the provincial parents group. To be honest when I found out that the Minister was expunging the group out of the education act, the writing was on the wall long ago.

I don't think replacing the group with regional PICs will change things unfortunately. All that's going to do is move the frustration felt by parents at the provincial level down to regional level.

What's really rich, and something that I agree totally with in MacDonald's column is that the provincial group was doomed when it moved in the hierarchy to under the Policy and Program Branch. I believe that PPB put up the blocks and the gov't knew it.

The gov't has now officially washed its hands of their partnership with parents at provincial level.

Instead of spending money supporting the provincial parents group, an office, meetings etc. That money is now going to councils and parent outreach grants.

You do realized how watered down it's all become don't you.

First parents were promised a "partnership"(under Dave Cooke, Snobelen, Johnson).
Then it morphed to a parent "involvement" (Ecker, Witmer, Kennedy)
Now parent engagement is what we're aiming for (Wynne).

I predict that the minister just demoted parents in the province.

If the PPG and the OPC under the NDP/PCs would have been allowed to move to a different designation other than advisory to the Minister, the organization might have been relevant to parents at the local level and around the province.

For those participating here from that provincial parent group, thanks, it's not your fault. Governments have allow this to happen.

[I Murasak]

If you are wondering just who education is for, readers should check out this documentary, The Cartel
http://www.thecartelmovie.com/ It is subtitled "How American Public Education Primarily Serves Its Employees, Not Its Children." That, readers, is the elephant in the room.

[Sheila Stewart]

I have been catching myself lately wondering just who education is for at times. I guess that gets back to the purpose, as we touched on in the "21st Century Schools..." Group. Do we "come out" as parents because we aren't sure that the best interests of students is "primary"?

And yes, Catherine, I am just as confused, what can a parent expect from a PIC now? Maybe the fall will bring answers!

[I Murasak]

When the school is managed in a way that is welcoming and by a principal who sees parents and the school council as essential to doing his/her job effectively and supports them, the result is very positive.

Very rarely does Catherine's first comment apply. I've had experience with both private and publicly-funded education. The treatment of parents in each was like night and day. It's the mom and pop store that knows you vs. the big box store that could care less if you shopped there.

Annie's right parents aren't a "system." We are families that do what is necessary to provide the best education experience we can as part of the goal of raising our children. When we are finished with school we move on to other things--we don't sustain ourselves as parent "system" It's the wrong analogy anyway.

And public education shouldn't be thought of as a "system" either. That's the fundamental problem--how we think about government schooling. Until the public education provider stops thinking like the bureaucratic monopoly it is, nothing will change for parents. Why should they care about parents? Parents come and go, their kids grow up and leave and a new crop of parents comes along to replace them.

The elephant in the room is what the "system's" primary interest is--and it isn't always the students or the parents. Guess what's left.

[Catherine]

Sheila - I thought about your questions and I keep coming back to the provincial parent group, because if this group had been allowed, by the Minister to work to be effective to parents, it could have been the catalyst to all those things I raised in my post. I'm confident that the OPC under both the NDP and Conservatives tried hard to
move parents to their roles as "partners" with the other stakeholders in the system. I believe that Wynne, ex-parent advocate that she was, has now effectively exchanged that unifying role from the PPG to local boards, which for parents and councils is a crap shoot because the success of councils and PICs is so varied across the province.

The new flowchart of the Ministry of Education has sr. bureaucrat Kit Rankin as overseeing the Parent Engagement Office, along with responsibility for Private Schools and Attendance Unit, and 5 Regional Offices.

The once highly publicized and hopeful parent voice in education is now one of three other education areas under Ms. Rankin.

As I understand it a PIC network is in the works, so I would certainly hope that the PICs across the province define and identify first and foremost a chain of communication and hierarchy between Rankin and the Minister and some guarantee be given to parents who sit on PICs that concerns raised by PICs will get the attention of the minister.

Sad when you think of the very high profile the OPC (and by extension) parents had under the NDP.

I also have to wonder whether PICs will be in competition with groups like People for Education and Home & School for the Minister's ear...and which one will she listen to.

My fear is that PICs adds another layer and/or an extension of the Ministry...that's looking to massage agreement and support while leaving a big question on what it is parents like me can expect on the ground as a volunteer, or as a parent who is interested but doesn't have time to go to meetings. How will my voice be heard?

I feel very sorry for the parents on the PPG and those others put on the OPC by the two previous governments who worked hard for the parent voice. I wonder whether Kathleen Wynne, the parent advocate, would have settled for this from another gov't. Somehow I doubt it.

[Sheila Stewart]

Catherine: I especially like these 3 comments of yours:

When the school is managed in a way that is welcoming and by a principal who sees parents and the school council as essential to doing his/her job effectively and supports them, the result is very positive.

If on the other hand the school council is appointed because no one wants the job, or the council is a handy tool for the school admin. and board, something else happens entirely.

It would be terrific to have effective school councils listed somewhere, with the reasons why it is effective.

I find it quite unfortunate that while some have the first scenario, others have the second. I know I need clarity soon on how this inconsistency can be addressed. How do we get there? Can we get there? We need a sign! I would think that the last thing we need is parents thinking that they have been fools to think they could have made a difference....?!

[Catherine]

We'll have to agree to disagree Gay because I do believe that the purpose for school councils is very clear and that the goal for each and every parent, once you strip away regionality is for their child to get the best education possible in a safe environment. I believe that to be true of northern parents, southern parents, parents who don't speak English, same-sex parents.

The job of a provincial body and to a lesser extent school councils is to be the unifier to all of those voices and suggestions and be able to effectively offer up all considerations...not just those one would agree with.

I also do not believe parents need to be funded by their own tax dollars to become engaged. The thousands of parents who experienced the system alongside their children in the days before reaching out grants sure didn't need to be coaxed to meetings, or anything else.

When the school is managed in a way that is welcoming and by a principal who sees parents and the school council as essential to doing his/her job effectively and supports them, the result is very positive.

If on the other hand the school council is appointed because no one wants the job, or the council is a handy tool for the school admin. and board, something else happens entirely.

It would be terrific to have effective school councils listed somewhere, with the reasons why it is effective.

Just getting parents to a meeting is the easy part...the trick is to making it worth their while because as with volunteers they must feel their time and effort is acknowledged and supported. If not, parents will never be back to a meeting.

One of the things that I see as huge in training councils is teaching them how to recruit their volunteers in a away that is meaningful and relates to the purpose of school councils in the first place...improving achievement in a safe environment. Some councils and boards are awful at recruiting to the point that the parents feel used..with little feedback or meaningful decision-making.

Perhaps that's where the PIC's could step in and fill that role.

In my experience with parents and the school system what we found worked really well for our parents was personal contact and individual conversation between parents. I know of trustees who have separate meetings with their parents and no board or school admin. because the trustee felt that often the parents are intimidated by the admin. and aren't as candid in their feelings.

Anyway, there's lots to learn from and I know from someone who was on councils for a few years the offering at our board's training session was poor for returning members. There was no progression in ability, or issues, just the same old "how to hold a meeting" or "fundraising' (even though some councils don't fundraise).

Have a great summer anyway Gay, Annie and all.

I just feel very badly for the efforts of parents out there who actually believed politicians who invited parents to some sort of equal partnership with a system that often gives off hints that it really doesn't want them.

Oddly enough, for those parent advocates with post-secondary students.....guess what? The advocacy changes somewhat but it doesn't disappear one bit.

[Gay Stephenson]

I've been following this discussion, not quite sure when I would jump in. But picking up on your last two points Catherine. Perhaps a difficult part of this is that parents won't ever have one point of view to present. So it's important to both fund and listen to a number of different parent voices and groups. I agree that there may be a sense of frustration for parents as to the role of school councils and PICs. I'm hoping that working together, we can make some progress there.

[Catherine]

Annie - your comment about parents not being a 'system' is true, but in fact parents were invited to be part of that system which in the past hasn't included parents at all. The question, from a parent perspective then became..."Great, sounds fine....now where do we fit in and what can we do to help?" A provincial body, whether it be the OPC or PPG should have been working to do just that. I think that as soon as the then Ontario Parent Council was demoted to be under the umbrella of the Policy/Program Branch....all bets were off in my mind that the gov't of the day wanted anything besides a nice parent bookend for the governent.

To me one of the clear signs that the provincial parent body was ineffective is that if they were and worked well and closely with parents and school councils there would have been an outcry from all corners of the province to keep the organization in tact. What he have instead is barely a whimper from parents, school councils and, yes, I guess People for Education too.

Sheila - I think that for PICs to make sense it has to make sense and be effective and accountable to parents first. My concern is that all the Minister has done by nixing the PPG and leaving it to boards to develop PICs is shifting the responsibility even lower down the hierarchy of the "system".

Under the NDP the Ontario Parent Council had great profile and direct access to the Minister of Education. Right up there with the EIC, COT, and EQAO. Minister's came to OPC meetings.

Under the Conservatives and Snobelen, Johnson the OPC stayed the same with respect to direct access to the Minister.

Under Ecker/Witmer - the OPC was handed to Policy/Program Branch and that to me was the beginning of the end for the OPC.

Under Kennedy - I think he did the right amount of building with Parent Voice In Education but then didn't allow the provincial parent organization to move to something better for parents.

Under Wynne - Why listen to the PPG when you're already contributing and funding other parent groups, like this one, and school councils?

I'm not sure what the answer will be but I sense more frustration for parents rather than more clarity of purpose for school councils and PICs.

[Sheila Stewart]

A sunny, summer day here in Thunder Bay finally too! Have been telling my oldest to stop studying and get out and enjoy the weather! :)

Good thoughts, Annie!

Mulling over some of this again. This is from one of M. MacDonald's columns:

"We have created an overly bureaucratic process ... it doesn't allow us to hear the breadth of voices across the province," Wynne told me. "I need a more flexible process."

Is that what is also needed for school councils/principals/PICs/boards? Or would that make it worse?

Back to the outdoors......!

[Annie Kidder]

It's a beautiful sunny day, and I should be outside weeding my garden, but.....

I guess I always think part of the problem lies in the fact that parents aren't a "system." Parents are all so different from one another - they want to be involved in different ways, they have vastly differing beliefs about how schools should work, they come from different cultures, want different things for their children (what I want for my child is that she would get up, for instance, and pick up the wet towels on the floor, and maybe start studying for exams, for instance, instead of sleeping all day). So then the problem for the education system is that it's a system, and it knows best how to interact with other systems, but not very well how to interact with something that is the direct opposite of a system.

But it's definitely time to review the role of school councils. They've been around for more than a decade and it's time to think about how they're working, what kinds of things they could or should be doing, and how they work with their schools - in particular with their principals. And while we're at it, maybe we could create a training "system" for principals, to assist them in working more effectively with their school councils.

In defense of People for Education, we do offer workshops for school councils at our conference. And the workshops cover a range of things. But maybe people could help us think about how we could make those workshops more effective.

Okay - I'm going to weed. I'm going to gently remind my child that she has a lot of homework and a science and a math exam to study for. I will try to get her to believe that finishing grade 11 in a semi successful fashion is nearly as important as her not having a boyfriend or the latest facebook scandal. I am sure I will not be successful.