The Edmonton Public School Board hits the news in Vermont

This opinion piece by George C. Cross in today’s Burlington Free Press describes the Edmonton Public School Board and suggests that its model would work well in Vermont, a state whose total population is about half the size of the City of Edmonton. The author here overlooks the existence of the Edmonton Separate School Board (the Catholic school system in Edmonton), but otherwise it seems to be a good representation of the many merits of Edmonton’s system. I’ve found it amazing since moving here the reputation the Edmonton school system has outside of Edmonton, and even outside of Canada.

Our children’s elementary school here is fantastic, but I do lament the loss of the many options they would have had back home, such as the ability to choose their own school, something that seems to me should be everyone’s right…

Just looking at the list of language options there are at the EPSB. I tell my students here about this all the time when trying to explain what Canadian multiculturalism is all about. Still, it’s astonishing to see that list of bilingual education programs in Edmonton public schools includes Arabic, Mandarin, Cree, French, German, Hebrew, Spanish, Punjabi, and Ukrainian. Nice to see someone in Burlington noticing my hometown!