Because I'm blocked, and @dr_ulanov screenshotted this thread, I'm going to say a few words about Dan Paperclip and his spurious (at best) ideas about "school choice" and teachers unions and systemic racism.

Ok, here we go:

We have school choice in Alberta. Parents can send their kids to a variety of school types - public, Catholic, non-Catholic religious schools, charter schools, independent schools, and private schools. They can also choose to homeschool their kids

The government funds ALL students who attend school in this province, even private school students (up to 70%), and does not discriminate based on the type of school that parents choose. Students can go between different school boards and schools, even within a school year.

There are 69 school boards where teachers contracts are negotiated by the Alberta Teachers Association, a professional organization that is NOT responsible for the creation or publication of curriculum.

Member teachers who do not follow the curriculum can be (and have been) fired for not upholding the Teaching Quality Standards set out by the province ( https://education.alberta.ca/media/3739620/standardsdoc-tqs-_fa-web-2018-01-17.pdf).

Teachers unions, in this case the ATA, are not responsible for the political beliefs of their members, but ARE responsible for the professional conduct and adherence to standards and protocols of both local school jurisdictions and the AB Ministry of Education.

It is incumbent upon teachers not to use their position of authority to indoctrinate their students.

We all remember James Keegstra, right? There's a whole generation of people in central AB who grew up believing the Holocaust didn't happen.

THAT'S indoctinration.

Paperclip is over here arguing that somehow teachers unions are discriminating against vulnerable students by not advocating for school choice, which is (as I've already mentioned) a thing that exists in this province already.

He's likening public opposition to school choice to systemic racism, and I can't even begin to comprehend that leap of logic.

I had a bunch of things I wanted to say but I can't put my thoughts together because I keep coming back to "what the everloving fuck, Dan?"

I realize the hypocrisy of what I'm about to say, but I sincerely think we need to stop giving him attention. He's wrong, all the time, and his opinions about education are actively harmful to students and school staff alike.

We're in the middle of a pandemic, all just doing our best, and he's over here trying to undermine one of the best, most robust public education systems in the world, all because he thinks it will curry favour with Dear Leader.

He doesn't deserve your time or your clicks.