Former Alberta Eduction Minister David King launched a petition today to abolish Alberta’s separate Protestant and Roman Catholic school systems.

“We should have children of different faiths and cultures learning together in the same schools,” he said. “We should also have adults of different faiths and cultures making decisions together through the same school board. This is how our school system should reflect Canadian values and pass them on to future generations.”

Edmonton Sun article

The SEA has a wide range of opinions on these sorts of topics, and we have members who would support everything from abolishing the public school system altogether, to a single public system, to many public separate schools, but I think that many of us would agree that the current system of separate Christian schools with their separate boards administrations isn’t the way to go.

Newfoundland and Quebec have transitioned to single school systems, and in Ontario’s last election, the debate consisted of a battle over faith-based schools, although no changes were ultimately made.  I also ran across this interesting article from an Ontario teacher’s perspective.

So, it’s something worth thinking about. Are two (or three) school systems the way to go to educate our children, or should we be supporting a change?