Give school boards back their independence!
Calgary - School boards across Alberta are struggling with rising costs, funding cutbacks, and dwindling reserves. Alberta Liberal Education Critic Harry Chase warns that this is just the beginning, as the impact of continued Conservative mismanagement begins to be felt in classrooms across Alberta.
Even as they mismanaged Alberta’s public finances into a black hole, the Stelmach Conservatives assured Albertans that they would not do it on the backs of the people who need government services the most. Yet, again and again we see a government taking funding from Albertans who really need it.
The most recent targets are students, teachers, and school boards. By failing to live up to his five year contractual obligation to teachers, Education Minister Dave Hancock is bankrupting school boards, forcing them to cut front line staff and run deficits. The result will be larger class sizes and reduced support for students.
The source of the problem is an agreement signed between teachers and the province three years ago, whereby Premier Stelmach promised to fund yearly wage increases for educators. Now, his government is pleading poor, even as he brags about the multi-billion dollar Sustainability Fund. School boards are being forced to find the money to cover the wage increases, putting them in the red and risking layoffs.
Chase argues that if the government isn’t willing or capable of keeping its financial commitments when it comes to education, then the government should return control of the education portion of property taxes to locally elected trustees.
“Perhaps it’s time to admit that tying boards to the boom-and-bust provincial economy is destabilizing for our schools. We should explore ways to empower school boards so that communities have a real voice in how schools are run,” continues Chase.
“An Alberta Liberal government would honour every single cent promised to school boards and teachers under any agreement we’d sign,” says Chase. “Students, parents and trustees would be able to make real plans for the future – plans that would give Alberta the best school system in the country.”
The Alberta Liberals plan to raise this issue in the legislature when the government brings in amendments to the School Act this fall, legislation which is already late coming. “Albertans need to know that there is an option, a better way,” concludes Chase.
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