Alison Redford, who is now Alberta’s 14th premier, vows to keep educational funding predictable and consistent.
“One of the issues that has dogged Alberta's education system for years is the question of funding,” her policy reads. “In some cases, parents have faced enormous uncertainty over whether their children will even have a local school to attend the following year due to budget cuts.”
Redford promised to keep up funding for all staff levels, and work with the Alberta Teachers’ Association to avoid system-wide shutdowns.
“Education is the foundation for our future. We need to embrace our opportunities to create the best system in the world. We are experiencing great progress, but we can do more. As Premier, I commit to making education a top priority.”
Aspen View school board chair Brian Bittorf hopes that Redford will be a shinning star when it comes to education funding.
“I think one of the things is that if she makes good on her promise of bringing back that $107 million in educational funding,” he said. “But it depends on how it is brought back in. If it’s done per pupil wise I believe it would be better for all jurisdictions than just putting it all back in and saying it has to go to staffing.”
One of the grants cut was the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement.
“They cut that grant in half and that’s probably one of the best innovations in Alberta Education probably in the last 25 years,” Bittorf said. “Since it’s grassroots and what you do with the program is determined by the people on the front line, it’s a very successful program.”
Bittorf thinks bringing back the initiative grant would help not only Aspen View schools, but schools across the province.
School board superintendent Brian LeMessurier agrees with Bittorf.
“We'll welcome those funds, and we’ll hope that they come with some flexibility attached so that our board can attend to the areas that we could sacrifice funding in order to maintain relatively low class sizes. And we'd like to have the discretion to pick where the board spends its money,” he said. “ It will allow us to better meet the needs of students and better support our staff.”
