The children are worth the investment [editorial]

Perhaps there is a way to close the education gap between Aboriginal peoples and their non-Aboriginal counterparts without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Canada is considering the way it funds education, while First Nations leaders are decrying the underfunding and commitment of government to educate their people.

On Sept. 21, the Assembly of First Nations began a week of activity on Parliament Hill to raise issues surrounding First Nations education, and the poor outcomes of Aboriginal people in school systems both on and off reserve.

National Chief Shawn Atleo reminded Canada that only about four per cent of First Nations people hold university degrees, compared with 23 per cent of the overall Canadian population, and though the Aboriginal high school graduation rate has risen to 49 per cent, it lags behind the 80 per cent mark in the rest of Canada.
He calls the situation a Canadian crisis. What it is, in fact, is lost opportunity and Canada’s wasted potential. Canadians have never been a wasteful bunch, and to throw away generation after generation of potential seems out of character for the country.

Canada has come to a cross-roads when it comes to Aboriginal education, and it has to make the right decisions now for the future.

What we know is that Canada is struggling with a situation that has indeed put a black mark on any discussion around education funding, and we have to face up to it as Aboriginal people. Canada has expressed its concern over the mis-use of education funds. Canada says that in some cases the funds that are supposed to be directed at First Nations education get misdirected by leaders who don’t have the best interests of their people at heart.

But what we also know is that the vast majority of First Nations are making the funds they get for education go as far as they can, ensuring their use is as effective as possible and responsible. They are hog-tied, however, by a two per cent funding cap, and no money at all for required language and culture training, which most studies have shown is key to Aboriginal student success.

If reform is necessary, and all seem to agree that it is, then it is imperative that First Nations be a part of the discussion, as well as part of the solution to addressing the government’s concern that, in some cases, there is an accountability problem in regard to education funds.

And Canada has to pony up with the funding levels that needed in Aboriginal education, not a percentage of what is needed, not half of what provincial schools get for each child in attendance, for example. (How can on-reserve students get equity in education if the feds are only prepared to put up half the funds that a province would put up for off-reserve tuition?)

Canada also has to give real consideration to the cost of the unique situation of operating in remote locations without supports. It has to give real consideration to the fact that First Nations people know how First Nations children learn, and what First Nations children need to learn, and how critical traditional knowledge is to the First Nations population.

And Canada has to acknowledge that the funds that flow become more and more strained as inflation carves out its piece annually, and our populations grow.

By continuing to underfund education, Canada is saying it’s OK to fund welfare, and fill up our prisons instead. Because that’s what happens when people aren’t valued enough to invest in. They end up underachieving or destructive in ways that we have to fund later anyway.
We know that education is an important issue to First Nations chiefs, who attended the rally on Parliament Hill during the week of action to push the issue forward on the Conservative government’s agenda. We’re encouraged by the fact that Atleo and newly appointed Indian and Northern Affairs Minister John Duncan have been able to sit with one another to discuss this critical issue.

But what we need is not talk, but a plan worked on jointly with each party putting politics and ideology aside and getting down to making real improvements. The government must listen and understand that reforms undertaken without First Nations being at minimum a co-architect of the design will fail and another generation of children will fail behind them.

Look into their eyes and see their hopes and dreams. These children don’t want only to survive, but to thrive and contribute. We can’t tell them they aren’t worth the investment, because they are.

Windspeaker