AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, CLIFF CULLEN

An Open Letter to MLA Cliff Cullen, Minister of Education for Manitoba 

 

Cliff Cullen, Minister of Education

Room 168, Legislative Building

450 Broadway
Winnipeg, MB R3C 0V8

April 9, 2021

Dear Mr. Cullen,

Do not assume the parents who write open letters or express concerns about the proposed changes to our education system have not read the (sparse) information provided.  We *have* read the documents and we still have very serious concerns.  Stop insulting the intelligence of Manitobans.  With all due respect, Mr. Cullen, your open letter sets absolutely nothing straight.  In fact, it further highlights how out of touch our Conservative government is and how little you have listened to the experts trying to advise you on how best to support students in Manitoba’s public schools.

You claim the Conservative government has reduced child poverty by 25% since 2016.  That figure may sound nice when you offer it up without any context.  In fact, Manitoba's poverty rate has decreased the least of any province in all of Canada, and we are still 10% behind the national average.  Not to mention, poverty rates in Manitoba decreased largely due to the Federal Child Tax Benefit program, which coincidentally was introduced in July of 2016, and had nothing to do with the Conservative government.  Manitoba still has second highest rate of poverty in Canada at 28.3%.  

I’m also wondering how our government can expect single parents to volunteer for Parent Advisory Councils (PACs) while working multiple minimum and low-wage jobs just to scrape together enough to provide for their families?  In Manitoba, over 60% of single-parent households are below the poverty line, but they should somehow “sacrifice” in order to volunteer at their child's school?  Exactly which "sacrifice" does our Premier want these parents to make, I wonder?  Should they sacrifice buying groceries?  Paying rent?  Their utilities?  

In schools that have PACs, those councils are primarily made up of white, higher-income parents who have the resources, the time, and the privilege to volunteer at their children's schools.  This is in no way to devalue their hard work.  Unfortunately, Mr. Pallister’s comments made in question period on March 22 were based on faulty assumptions.  Due to systemic racism and ableism, most of the parents who work multiple jobs to make ends meet are Indigenous peoples, immigrants, people of colour, people with disabilities, and other minority groups that already experience systemic racism and oppression.  Most of the privileged families in Canada are white.  Because racism.  

So now, groups that are already struggling will have even less of a say in the way their children’s schools are run because the higher-income families will be taking up all the room at the table.     

How will high-income, white, stay-at-home parents understand the struggles faced by those in minority groups?  How will a parent whose children do not have any disabilities understand the needs of the families and students who do?  Parents whose children have disabilities are already busy trying to work to pay for therapies, taking their children to appointments, and meeting with teachers and school staff to advocate for their children.  Where are we supposed to find the time to volunteer?  And if we don’t, are we not making enough of a “sacrifice” for our children, as Mr. Pallister suggested?  

The only thing that we seem to agree on, Mr. Cullen, is that our current education system needs to change.  Yes, it needs a massive overhaul, but the Conservatives are clearly not equipped or qualified to do this and are not willing to listen to the experts who want to guide our policy-makers in the best interests of children.  

So, Mr. Pallister and Mr Cullen: Kindly step aside and let the experts do their jobs.  Perhaps there is room on your children’s parent councils for you to voice your ill-informed, uneducated opinions with the other privileged parents? 

Sincerely,

Concerned Manitoba Parents

and

ADHD 2e Pro

Source

Most of our statistical information came from The Social Planning Council of Winnipeg's Report Card on Poverty in Manitoba.  

We have included this open letter on our website and have also uploaded the Report of the Commission on K to 12 Education and the Poverty in Manitoba Report Card with the 2020 Update.  

Assessments and Planning

Assessments and Student-Specific-Plans 

Building upon our previous blog post, Manitoba's SSP Handbook Needs An Upgrade, we want to outline some practical ways that these documents can serve their true purpose: 

1. SSPs should inform school staff about a student's needs, strengths, accommodations, and the best ways to support them.  
2. SSPs should be strengths-based, written in a way that utilizes the student's strengths to help develop their areas of struggle, and that puts the onus on the school and the adults to provide appropriate supports and accommodations.  
3. SSPs should clearly outline these supports, accommodations, and best-practices in a way that is easy for school staff to understand and follow.  

The third point is where a lot of SSPs, assessments, and other planning documents fall short.  They may contain fantastic information and great recommendations, but if they are full of professional jargon or have unrealistic recommendations that the school doesn't have the resources to follow, then they won't be very useful to the student (or to anyone).  

Resources

As we mentioned in our previous blog post, it is the obligation of the school administration to advocate for their students and to push for the resources they need in order to provide appropriate support and accommodations.  That said, these processes take time, and the students are often left floundering in the mean time and it's the classroom teacher and students that are left to try to work together with only partial resources available to them.  That isn't fair to anyone.  

Staff Guidance

An important part of providing resources is ensuring that staff have adequate qualifications, skills, and training in order to meet the needs of the students.  What we've found is that quite often school staff have a meeting, review and update the SSP, then that SSP is filed away in a drawer to gather dust while everyone fumbles along doing the best they can without proper guidance.  School staff need in-the-moment guidance for “when this happens, here is what you do.” SSP and assessment reports may be too general for the staff to make use of them if they don’t know how to handle specific scenarios in the moment.  

Have We Mentioned... Resources?

Again, this comes down to the Manitoba Government providing adequate funding that is specifically earmarked for these types of supports and training.  

Schools need:

1. Proper funding so as to recruit, hire, train, and retain qualified, experienced, and skilled staff.  
2. Proper funding so as to have the time and finances to pay staff to attend additional relevant training.  
3. The mandate that administrators provide the time, coverage, and support for staff to attend relevant training opportunities.  
4. Most importantly, opportunities for clinical teams and experts to provide on-the-job guidance, mentorship, and training for school staff.  

We cannot stress this enough:  

One hour of on-the-job training is worth 8 hours of sitting at a workshop and retaining maybe 20% of what we hear.  

If administrators can spare the time and expense of just one hour per month (or more if they can!) of on-the-job training for their staff, they will reap the benefits in spades.  Staff will feel empowered when they are given the proper tools to do their jobs, rather than being thrown in unprepared and then held accountable (dare we say, blamed?) when things go wrong.  Most importantly, the students will reap the benefits of competent, confident support staff in their schools and classrooms.  It is often the students that shoulder most of the blame when things go wrong, leading to poorer academic outcomes and lower self-esteem.

Practical and Realistic Solutions

The next time you're sitting in a school meeting and everyone around the table feels satisfied that you've come up with wonderful accommodations and recommendations, before you put the proverbial rubber stamp on that SSP, ask one very important question: Practically speaking, what will this look like in the day-to-day life of the school staff and the student?  How exactly, and very specifically, will we be implementing these accommodations and recommendations?  Go through the student's day step-by-step if you have to, outlining exactly where the struggles come up, and what the adults can do moment-to-moment to help that student develop the skills they need to manage, work around, and overcome these difficulties.  

Practically speaking, what will this look like in the day-to-day life of the school staff and the student?  How exactly, and very specifically, will we be implementing these accommodations and recommendations?

For more information on writing effective SSPs, please see our previous blog post.  

At the end of the day, the student's needs must come first.  Each student has the right to accommodations that put them on a level playing field with their peers.  The goal of an SSP, or any planning for a student, must be to make the student's school life easier, and to support them to be successful.  The goal is not to make the adult's lives easier, but when we provide the right supports for the student and adequate training for staff, the two will come hand-in-hand.  

If you need assistance advocating for your child, or if you are seeking training for your staff, please do not hesitate to contact us.  

About the Author

Jillian is an ADHD 2e Coach and Child Advocate in Manitoba, Canada.

Jillian has a diploma in Child & Youth Work and a Degree in Psychology, as well as being the parent of an amazing 2e/ADHD child.

Visit ADHDMB.ca and Facebook.com/ADHD2ePro to learn more.

If you need help educating your child's school, your family, or with general ADHD coaching or advocacy, please feel free to contact us.