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Last week I wrote about how the Liberal government is attempting to build a one-size-fits-all approach to health care in this province. Sadly, this same approach is being taken with respect to French second language education in our schools.

Kâté LeBlanc/Telegraph-Journal

Simone Crawford is upset with recommendations that early immersion be taken out of elementary schools. Her daughter, Brooke (8) is currently in the program, and she would like for her son, Timothy (5), to have the same advantage, she says. The two kids attend Fairville Elementary School.

The Minister of Education recently announced that he and his government unilaterally decided to abolish all French language education prior to Grade 5 including early French immersion and the core French program.

Following a student's Grade 5 year they will be required to make a decision that will stick with them until they complete high school - whether to enroll in late French immersion or to follow yet-to-be defined post-intensive French route.

The impacts of this decision are hitting families in the province hard. A colleague's sister, who happens to be an early immersion graduate, was planning to enroll her son in early immersion this fall. This was not a difficult decision as she and her husband understand the importance of their son learning French, and want him to experience that right away. As a toddler they started introducing French words and phrases to his vocabulary and last September they started preparing their son for what school would be like, trying to drive home the point that he would have to speak French at school. They are now faced with their son not receiving any French education in his first four years of school.

They have become so disillusioned with the government's decision they are considering a move to Nova Scotia, and they are not alone.

We read reports this week that the province could lose as many as four doctors in the Saint John area alone because they feel their children's education is going to be compromised under this new policy.

This begs the question, as the Premier talks tough about boosting New Brunswick's population, how many people is the Premier prepared to see leave the province because he has taken educational options away from parents? Have they considered the impacts of removing choice on our ability to attract new families to our province? How will this new program impact older students who have not gone through the intensive French year because they moved here during their late middle school or high school years?

Ultimately this issue comes down to one thing, choice, and the fact that the government has removed parents and students from the equation. Under today's system parents and students have options. They can choose from early French immersion, late French immersion, or the core French program. They also have the ability to decide if they want to leave either of the immersion programs if they feel that is in the student's best interests. Under the new program there is only one option, and once you make that decision after Grade 5 there is no going back.

The Minister of Education has boasted that with these changes we are now "the only province that has a universal way of teaching French."

As a parent myself, I know that you can't be so shortsighted as to think that you can apply the same learning formula to all children. Like it or not, kids don't learn the same way, kids do need different options. Unfortunately, the Liberal government does not share that view, as once again they believe that they know best, regardless of what parents want.

I agree that we need to increase the number of bilingual graduates from our school system, but I do not agree with taking away choice and diminishing the role parents have in determining the way their child should be educated. Rather than scrapping French language instruction in the early grades in favour of this new program, we should work to find ways to improve retention through Grade 12. We should have another look at the evaluation points so that students can be provided with increased feedback on where they stand with their second language skills. We should take the time to improve the core program to ensure that those students get the support they need to be successful in pursuit of their chosen FSL path.

The Education minister has grossly manipulated the statistics to push his own agenda. Every time he does this he is showing his lack of respect for the many graduates that continue to be actively bilingual in our province today.

The Education minister and the Premier would do well to remember that as many choices as they take away from New Brunswickers, there is one choice that they can't take away, and voters will make that choice when they cast their ballots on September 27, 2010.

Robert MacLeod is President of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick and a senior business executive with a well-known New Brunswick food company. For more information please visit www.pcnb.ca.