The article I read on CBC news titled “Government Urged to Invest in First Nations Education” (click link) sparks quite a controversy among Canadians. Former lieutenant governor of Ontario, James Bartleman discusses how he thinks inequality in funding reveals racist attitudes. He thinks there is under funding of First Nations schools in Canada and says “Canadians view Aboriginal people as less than human…let things happen that you wouldn’t accept with other people in society”. Some students go months without attending classes like in Pikangikum First Nation in Ontario where moulding in teachers housing put classes on hold and might ruin the school year for students. Bartleman knows first hand how education is a way out of poverty and how “First Nation schools now receive one-third to one-half less funding per student than other schools in Ontario”. Those statistics do not sit well with me at all.
I am not fully educated on how much money the government gives First Nations schools so I am not going to give an actual opinion on the matter because I do not feel that it would be a correct judgement but I believe Bartleman was somewhat harsh when discussing how First Nations are almost not treated like humans. There is a lot of tension regarding money given to reserves that they could be spending on education. I think no matter what, every student in Canada should be given the same education no matter if they live on a reserve or not. When reading the comments under the article, many people mentioned how students on reserves should go to public schools. But it is not the government’s right to tell individuals where they can send their children to school. Just like it is not the government’s job to tell people they can or cannot send their children to religion based schools. But in religion based schools the government generally gives little or no funding. I can definitely see both sides of the debate but I am not sure which side I am on. There has to be a way that all Canadians and the government can work together to form an understanding with First Nations. It almost seems like schools on reserves are being forgotten, I bet many Canadians do not even know there are schools on reserves. No matter what side an individual is on the main objective for everyone should be equal education for every Canadian student. The fact is we all come from different backgrounds but we are all Canadian. This article reminded me again of Simons and Masschelein (2008) quote “within the socialrationality of governing, education thus became a governmental concern, and thenational government started to think of itself as being responsible forgoverning the relation between “education” and “society” (p. 395).It really is too bad societies cannot join together and decide together what works for us instead of always having to rely on the government to assist us in order to receive the education that is needed.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2008.00296.x/abstract;jsessionid=4B1841DCC6BAE6E2FCE8AB083C048158.d02t03?userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=
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