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Bauni Mackay
The Klein government was elected on June 15, 1993. On July 1, I took over as president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association. What followed were six of the most turbulent years in the history of the Association.
The Alberta government had a mandate to eliminate the deficit and destroy the debt, and to do this, it began dismantling the province’s public services through deregulation, deprofessionalization and privatization. Moving with speed and single-mindedness that defied rational discussion and precluded consideration of the consequences, the government, in the words of Premier Klein, “would not blink.”
Even before Ralph Klein was elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative party in December 1992, Education Minister Jim Dinning travelled the province with his “Fiscal Realities” show. His message was succinct but potent: spending on education, healthcare and social services was out of control, and the service in these sectors was inefficient and ineffective. Accompanied by a chorus of agreement from chambers of commerce, the Fraser Institute, the right-wing news media and Dr. Joe Freedman (a Red Deer radiologist and self-appointed education analyst), Dinning convinced Albertans that the education system in Alberta needed serious restructuring. The solution was to apply a results-based market model to what was described in the ATA’s 1993 Trying to Teach study as an already overburdened and underfunded education system. After the 1993 election, most of the “Fiscal Realities” presentation became government policy, and schools were left to do even more with even less.
In addition to the cuts to education, the rollback in teachers’ salaries and the reduction of kindergarten hours, a private member’s bill proposed splitting the Association and making ATA membership voluntary. Other so-called “reforms” were charter schools, increased funding to private schools, increased provincial testing, amalgamation of school boards, a new funding framework for school boards, school-based budgeting, funding tied to performance measures, redefinition of roles and responsibilities, including enhanced roles for school councils, revision of the Teaching Profession Act, funding following the child, and implementation of a market model of education based on choice and competition.
The Association’s and teachers’ tasks were clear. Not only would we have to deal with the myriad of rapid-fire reforms coming at us, we had to counter the unfounded claims of the critics and convince Albertans that their education system was one of the best in the world, a fact supported by the excellent performance of Alberta students on national and international tests. Effective communication was key, and as spokesperson for the ATA, I took responsibility for keeping education in the public eye. The least expensive way to communicate was through the news media. I took advantage of every opportunity to speak to the media, and the presidents of ATA locals were encouraged to do the same. Media attention was intense and sometimes overflowed to national and even international coverage.
The rest of the country watched Alberta closely. If the Klein agenda was implemented successfully, other provincial governments would likely follow suit. As a result, in addition to visiting as many Alberta communities as possible, I was invited to almost every province and territory at least once, and in the case of Ontario and British Columbia, several times, to talk to teachers, labour organizations and community groups about what was happening in Alberta. I also spoke to meetings of national organizations, such as the Conference Board of Canada, the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and the Duke of Edinburgh Eighth Commonwealth Study Conference. There were some weeks when I was on a plane every day, including Sunday.
Although people understood the implications of the government agenda for the public healthcare system, they did not have the same concept of the education system. I began to refer to “public” education in the hope that the message that education is society’s responsibility would resonate with everyone, including people with no school-aged children. I talked about the influence of the government agenda on children but focused on the role of public education in maintaining a strong society.
Teachers and parents had little influence on government. They were dismissed as special interest groups. The general public had to be inspired to defend public education. The Association’s Provincial Executive Council made difficult decisions, as did emergent representative assemblies and local councils. There were huge demands on the ATA’s financial and human resources, and the quantity and high quality of work done by ATA staff at all levels was remarkable. It was teachers, however, diligently working to keep the public education system strong by serving the best interests of their students in spite of eroding conditions who ensured the strategy’s success. Each year, Angus Reid polling showed significant increases in support for public education and teachers, and at the end of the Alberta Growth Summit, in September 1997, education, as part of the Summit’s People Development section, was designated the number one priority for investment in the province’s future.
Sometimes in concert with education partners, but more often alone, the ATA strategically wended its way through the minefield of change, stopping some measures and moulding others into more helpful models. A meeting with the premier (at our request) and meetings with a succession of ministers of education and MLAs, as well as government standing policy committees and the Growth Summit, were the vehicles for government consultation, as were roundtables and forums.
Mobilizing the membership to be politically active and embarking on various public relations endeavours were the ATA’s strategy to influence the agenda. The ATA’s “Know More” campaign and the ongoing “Public Education Works” campaigns, as well as the establishment of the Public Education Action Centre, were designed to persuade Albertans to speak up for public education.
The 1997 Annual Representative Assembly passed a resolution calling on Provincial Executive Council to organize a rally of the province’s teachers to spotlight what was happening to public education. Council chose October 4, 1997, World Teachers’ Day, as the day teachers would gather on the grounds of the Alberta legislature to help Albertans “Get the Message” that teachers could no longer hold together an excellent public education system under increasingly deteriorating conditions. Written notification of the event, along with a videotaped invitation, was sent to every school. District representatives, local presidents and other provincial and local leaders encouraged every teacher to attend the rally. ATA staff spent countless hours organizing an event that promised to be seamless in delivery and spectacular in presentation.
Teachers responded. Transported to the rally site on hundreds of busses, 18,000 teachers (in addition to many parents, children and members of the public) wore “Get the Message” scarves, waved placards and listened to poignant messages from teachers in Alberta and from across the country before marching around the legislature. The experience of so many people with a common cause gathered in the shadow of the legislature, the golden leaves of fall rustling in the background, singing “O Canada” to the accompaniment of a Dixieland band, was one most of us will never forget.
Our goal was to catch the attention of Albertans. We succeeded. Thanks to extensive coverage by local and national news media, people got the message. Although the minister of education chose not to attend, the premier and many other government members took notice of the event. No longer could teachers be dismissed as nothing more than a special interest group.
With the deficit eliminated and the debt under control, the government eventually responded to public pressure to restore funding to public education. However, the sacrifices teachers made to help the government achieve its fiscal goals were not acknowledged, and the salary cutbacks were not repaid.
In spite of this demonstration of government parsimony, there were some positive moves during my final months in office. Not only did the government propose initiatives to enhance teachers’ professionalism, but when Bill 20, which would have eliminated the Board of Reference, was introduced, the ATA was successful in having it amended. While these events were not indicative of unfettered cooperation, they were, nonetheless, steps in that direction.
When I left office at the end of June 1999, a spirit of hope hovered in the air. As a new president and a new minister of education, operating in a less fractious political atmosphere, came on the scene, there was reason to anticipate a new level of peaceful coexistence and constructive collaboration. Public education, although changed in scope and operation, was intact; the ATA, although weary from the struggle, remained untouched; and the teaching profession, although pushed to the brink, appeared to be finding its second wind. The second chapter of the Klein years promised to be better than the first.
Bauni Mackay served as ATA president from 1993–1999.
