Actually you are not very far off the mark regarding your comment on the schools as daycare centres. One of my colleagues was fond of stating that teachers should "Never underestimate the importance of their custodial role."
I can fully get behind the movement to remove (much of) the custodial requirements from the teacher's duties. Over the years, that has morphed into an entitlement expected by the parents of the students. Further, it also serves to diminish the true importance of the actual schooling.
A case in point was a strike by a large number of Alberta teachers in the 1990s. I won't go into the details of the dispute as that is not what I am addressing here. Suffice to say that the teachers were ordered back to work by the government with the dispute unresolved. The teachers retaliated by withdrawing all voluntary services. In other words they showed up for work at 8:15 am and departed at 03:45 pm. They refused to participate in any extracurricular activities, including coaching, drama, and many other after-school activities. The response from the public was so strong that teachers were left wondering why they had bothered to go on strike in the first place. Refusing to coach basketball turned out to be far more effective. The government caved in within three weeks.
The risk of being served with back-to-work orders is high when the union had a lock on the delivery of educational services in the province. It came as no surprise to me that the gvt considered the ATA as an "essential service" based on the notion that the threat of strike (or actual strike) would close the entire system.
As it stands, what the ATA did in withdrawing the voluntary services was a action that I fully supported. In my view, those teachers that provide those additional services should be compensated above their regular pay for this and in my view, that compensation should come directly from the families that desire the program - it should not be any part of the education budget at all... On that note, while I feel that the teachers which provide these extra circular services be recognized for it, I also believe that the current "system" seeks to compensate all members of the ATA for the services provided by the few... Clearly, this is also not equitable or fair for the rate payer.
My interpretation of the public's response to the withholding of those services was nothing more than an expression of entitlement that society should pay the freight on everything.
However, you are overstating the importance of so called Charter Schools and private schools. First of all any school can nominate itself as a Charter School. It simply has to state a goal and then work toward that goal. An example would be a school that declares itself a Charter School and adopts "academic excellence" as its goal. Since that is something all schools do anyway it really does not have to change a thing about the way it operates. In the United States the attempt to replace public schools with schools run under private contract have been disastrous with the quality of education plummeting for the students involved.
One of the biggest benefits generated by the Charters and Privates is that it forces the parents to assess a "value" on their kids education. To a degree, this "value" will be transferred onto the student in some form.
There is no question in my mind that one of the critical explanations why the GPA for Charters/Private Schools is higher (or may be higher) is because there
might be greater motivation on the part of the student... Yes, lower class sizes and access to more/better technology are factors as well, but if there is sincere drive in the individual student, the chances for better results is much more probable.
Private schools in Alberta have very little impact on the system as there so few of them. In fact private schools are a drain on the system to some extent in that they receive full pupil funding from the government and can still demand fees from the children sent to them.
I will debate you on the comment that the Private schools are a drain on the system. The per student funding does not exceed what the provincial formula stipulates and as these families have kicked into the education tax just like everyone else, they are fully entitled to receive that funding. As far as the extra money is concerned, that is a decision made by the parents and has no impact on the public/separate systems in any way, shape or form.
