Last week, Alberta's new Education Minister Adriana LaGrange introduced Bill 8 which, if passed, the government says would modernize Alberta's education system and improve student success.  

The bill is designed to tweak the Education Act that was passed under the former Progressive Conservative government in 2012 but was never proclaimed and would replace the School Act which came into effect in 1998.  The government claims the act focuses on education on the student and makes schools safe, welcoming places where diversity is celebrated and bullying is not tolerated.

However, the opposition NDP claims that the bill rolls back protections for LGBTQ students that they introduced.  In the bill, there will be no time limit for principals to grant a student request to start a gay-straight alliance (GSA) club.  The act would no longer guarantee permission to use words such as "gay" or "queer" in the name of any school club.  The new act also eliminates a clause that says school principals can only tell parents if the school has a GSA and no further information about the club.

The NDP called the bill "an act to destroy gay-straight alliances."

RVS Board Chair Todd Brand says before the board reacts to the issues being brought forward by opponents of the bill, they want to know what the exact wording of the final draft will say.  "I think we're still working through and trying to figure out the final wording and nuances that the government is saying the new Education Act is going to have in it." 

However, Brand insists that student welfare and safety is the number one priority at Rocky View Schools.

"It is always a very high concern for us that all kids, every single student, be provided with a safe and caring environment and we will always be expecting our provincial government will help us to ensure that safe and caring environment as well.  We'll be looking into that closely, seeing what the new wording looks like.  We've always complied with provincial legislation and we'll always continue to do that but we are trusting that the government will keep students safety first and foremost."

There was plenty of talk about the new Education Act at the recent meeting of the Alberta School Boards Association.  Brand says the boards were planning to vote to delay the approval of the act but the government's announcement that they were moving ahead with it made that a moot point.  But, Brand says, after two worrisome issues that could have budget implications for boards were addressed, their fears lessened.  One was the increase in age to 21 from 19 in terms of a board's responsibility to pay for a student's education and the other was around residency requirements for students and how residency and home school is determined.  

It appears as though both of those troublesome items for boards are going to be amended by the government, says Brand.

"I think that because those couple of issues won't become issues because they're going to be amended, I'm not so sure that there was so much concern for having the delay of the enactment of the act."

The government says if Bill 8 is passed, which appears inevitable with the UCP holding a majority in the legislature, the Education Act would come into effect on September 1, 2019.