Brookside elementary school teacher Joyce Holden was told before Easter that she won't be returning to work in September.

Did Ms. Holden lack passion, commitment or enthusiasm for her job Was she just coasting along, working a 25-hour week until her retirement Did parents, students or the school principal think her performance was poor Did she commit a crime or behave inappropriately Was Ms. Holden in any way a bad teacher

No, no, no, no and no are the answers to these five questions.

Ms. Holden is "absolutely exceptional" and "truly gifted in teaching," according to school principal Laurie Beggs, who broke down in tears when she dismissed Ms. Holden. Ms. Holden had been previously nominated for a provincial excellence in teaching award.

So why did this good teacher get laid off

In one word: seniority. Ms. Holden will lose her job because she lacked seniority within her school district. Union-backed rules guarantee a job to every teacher on a continuous contract, regardless of competence, at the expense of good teachers on probationary contracts.

In a province where competence in teaching is not rewarded, Ms. Holden has fallen victim to the anti-merit ideology that determines which teachers are hired or fired.

This same anti-excellence philosophy creates Alberta's "pay grid." Teachers in Alberta are paid according to how many years they have worked and how many years of post-secondary education they have completed. Nothing else matters. Six years of post-secondary education and eleven years of experience puts you at the top of the pay scale. Once there, working hard and being effective are optional, not mandatory. Fortunately, most teachers work very hard, and many earn less money than they deserve. Unfortunately, Alberta's current "pay grid" also allows a small minority of lazy, incompetent and uncaring teachers to coast along comfortably until retirement, collecting a pay cheque which they have not earned.

If Brookside elementary school's budget is larger than expected and it becomes possible to hire one extra teacher, Ms. Holden won't get her job back. The extra position (if there is one) will automatically go to a teacher from another school who has more seniority, without regard to competence.

The Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) supports the status quo, in which seniority always trumps talent, enthusiasm and hard work. Once a teacher gets a continuous contract, she or he is guaranteed a job for life. But most Albertans - including many teachers - don't share the ATA's rigid commitment to seniority, and think that merit should be considered. And why not We don't put lawyers, accountants, and other professionals on a pay grid which rewards seniority at the expense of competence.

There's no point in blaming the ATA. That's because education policy is decided by Premier Klein, Learning Minister Oberg, and the other 72 members of Alberta's Progressive Conservative caucus. It's up to them to change current policy. Nothing prevents Premier Klein from introducing competence, talent and merit as factors which determine who is hired and who is fired. But until the Klein government changes current policy, expect the sad story of Joyce Holden to be repeated throughout Alberta.