How satisfied are you with your school?

First Nations schools in Canada need reforming. I cannot think of many people that would disagree with me on that opinion. We are crippled with 30 - 40% less funding than our provincial counterparts, we are overcrowded, and most importantly, there is no actual 'system' in place on reserve. There are no laws which regulate our reserve schools. While provincial schools are regulated by provincial Public Schools Acts, and Educational Administration Acts, First Nations schools are governed by Indian Act sections that are sparse and archaic (they mostly deal with truancy). Our collective outcomes demonstrate the issues we are facing.

How we reform however, and where we go with this reform is open to debate.

E.D. Kain has an interesting post on http://www.newmajority.com/ that looks at education reform in the U.S..

Most American parents are happy with their schools, and this has been true for decades. The public school system is one of the best expressions of local government (and indeed government of any scale), and represents an opportunity for communities and their youth to come together not only to learn but to express what those communities stand for and believe in. The federal government can never replicate the success that we’ve had as a nation locally no matter how brilliant the education wonks they hire are, or how clever their standardized test writers may be. We simply can’t rely on central planners to manage education. They’re too disconnected from the trenches, and too bound by their own clever ideas to respond to the realities on the ground.

We suffer from a 'lack of confidence' in our education system. Reform of the system in the end, will need to come from our communities themselves, with the suppport of the federal government. In the end it will be the parents that will demand schools, school systems and educational laws that their children deserve and that they are 100% satisfied with.