Neoliberalism—which functions “an ideological cover for the promotion of capitalist interests”—is certainly alive and well in British Columbia. The provincial government is the beau ideal of the business-government philosophy that serves the interests of capital rather than people.
This is evident in the privatization of public services such as BC Ferries, BC Rail, and the “liberalization” of education.
For example,
- the Ministry of Education has encouraged under-funded schools in BC to form for-profit companies to market BC’s Dogwood Program (the equivalent of a high school diploma) in Asia where there is demand for it. There are now nine off-shore schools officially certified by the BC Ministry of Education.
- despite billions of dollars of in budget surpluses, the Liberal Party BC government has cut the real levels of funding per student for public schools—which has produced deteriorating teaching and learning conditions, closed schools, cuts to the number of teacher-librarians—and increased university tuition (after campaign promises to cut tuition by 5%), etc.
And now, as the Ministry of Education increasingly emphasizes tests scores it’s on the the same path that lead the United States to the No Child Left Behind Act and the resultant pedagogy of oppression.
The same neoliberal worldview that makes NCLB seem like a good thing, is at work in BC and is manifest most explicitly in the work of the Fraser Institute. The Fraser Institute’s rankings of provincial schools based on scores from the Foundations Skills Assessment (a mandatory provincial test), mimics the simplistic approach to judging school quality that has swept the US in the wake of NCLB.
The Fraser Institute rankings have enjoyed strong, uncritical support from the major media in the province (e.g., The Vancouver Sun, The Province, and Global TV, all part of CanWest Global Communications, Inc.), so, it’s refreshing to see The Georgia Straight highlight Paul Shaker’s recent critique of the Fraser Institute’s report cards.
Of the Fraser Institute’s approach to ranking schools Shaker said, “The gloss or the veneer of science is put on these claims, but real science isn’t there.”
The remarks were made as part of a debate between Shaker, Dean of the Simon Fraser University Faculty of Education, and Peter Cowley director of school performance studies at the Fraser Institute, which was hosted by British Columbia Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Cowley responded by asking, “How do we know if we’re improving without measurement?” … the proverbial you-can-fatten-a-pig-by-weighing-it logic.
In the debate, Shaker pointed out that there’s much more to school evaluation that comparing test scores…video of the debate will be uploaded to the SFU web site soon.
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