Impacts of the New Provincial Budget on Education
The new Alberta Government (The United Conservative Party, led by premier Jason Kenney) is leading an unexpected change in many Albertan resources, including the education system. The U.C.P has instituted a 5 - 9% budget cut into each school’s funding (in total it is about a $136 million loss), asking parents and schools to come up with an extra $121 million. The loss of money is coming 66% from per student funding and 34% from grants. Our school has a speculated 6% cut but because the new budget has not been put in place yet nobody really knows the exact details.
The cuts are impacting the K-12 education system broadly, with some of the most significant losses including the Program Unit Funding, known as PUF funding, for Kindergarteners; potential layoffs of up to 300 teachers across the province, and on top of it all, school budgets are being produced differently than last year. EPSB chair Trisha Estabrook, is concerned about cuts, but reassured everyone that classrooms will not be affected and there are no planned layoffs for this school year. The EPSB expects that these things will occur if the cuts continue.
PUF is a Kindergarten program that provides families that have students with complex needs (development delays or disabilities) accessibility to programs such as GRIT. These programs can provide Development Assistants, Certified Teachers, Speech-Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, and Physical Therapists. They also have access to Behaviour Support, Family Support Social Workers, Speech-Language Assistants, and Mental Health Consultants, so as you can see the PUF is very important to children ages 6 and under to be able to access schooling later on. Because of the cuts in school funding PUF is losing money, therefore supports are being cut down. Students are left with only half the support if not less.
The teachers and support workers in our schools are what make schools. To hear that some of them may have to leave, is not only heartbreaking but will also prove to be a big impact on one's life. The adults in schools are people who you can lean on for support for school and home life. They all do so much more than teach humanities, math, and science. They teach students life lessons and are there when they need them.
The five year roll out is a system created to budget schooling, it works like so;
Your budget would be $230, but keep in mind these are very broad numbers and are not accurate to our school. The budget was per student so the budget would have been $300. What this example illustrates is that the school would lose $70. If you were to turn that into larger numbers the impact would be much greater than $70. In smaller communities (commonly rural) the population remains more stable;
As you can see this school is not affected by the five year roll out, because they would get $100 in any scenario.
If anyone out there is worried about these cuts just ask yourself “Why resist change?”, “How much change is unchangeable?”, “Do these changes compromise my values?”, that's what our principal Brad Burns does. I interviewed Mr. Burns to see what he had to say about the cuts, here's his perspective. Mr. Burns is disappointed that supports are being affected on all levels of the school, but overall he sees this as an opportunity to re-imagine our school system. One thing he was disappointed about was the fact that this conversation had to come up because of the cuts when he believes that a lot of the things everyone is talking about are things we should be talking about in everyday school. We can either use Fear/Conflict or Collaboration/Creativity/Kindness. He would like you to remember that all schools are affected and that we have everything under control. Just think of two words if you're worried; values, and above all kindness!
Here are some things I learned in a town hall meeting with NDP MLA David Shepherd, at Iconoclast Coffee Roasters on Monday March 9th. The U.C.P has two options: make more cuts or increase revenue. What they are choosing to do is make cuts. Though these cuts were made to make more jobs, people are losing tens of thousands of jobs and in total there are 19 000 jobs less than in 2019. In total, between every surface that the cuts are being made, there are about $813 million in cuts. These cuts are producing higher school fees for parents. In addition, before these changes, schools always had access to their reserve funding, now they must get permission before doing so. Urban and rural schools are being affected differently, urban taking a harder blow.
Children are this world's most valuable resource. We are the next leaders, the next inventors, and the next influencers. One day soon the children that are in our world will grow up and become important figures in our world, but they can not do so if they are not nurtured and taught properly. It is the adults and the Government's job to create possibilities for us to learn and grow while we’re still kids. These possibilities are getting cut because of the new budget and it is not ok. We need to fight for the rights of kids and stick up for our values. Kids should not have to worry about not getting a proper education just because the government cut money. Everyone needs a chance to learn and here's ours. Stand up for you, protect your values, and always do what's KIND!
