Finance Minister Travis Toews delivers the budget as Premier Jason Kenney watches in Edmonton on Thursday.--cp photo Jason Franson
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
The three local school boards are taking a cautious approach to the 2020-21 budget until its finer details can be pored over.
The province is moving toward a new K-12 funding model based on three-year enrolment averages, rather than annual student numbers as was the case in the past, so there’s a lot of uncertainty about how the budget funds will be divided among the province’s 61 school boards.
Medicine Hat Public School Division superintendent Mark Davidson says all the board has received so far is a single-page budget profile, with more details to come Monday.
He anticipates MHPSD’s budget will be finalized by the end of March after further consultation with the ministry.
“In the interim, we will use the information we have to analyze our current situation and start planning for the impact on our system. We will be able to speak to that impact once our analysis is complete.,” said Davidson.
“We remain committed to delivering quality education to all students and look forward to communicating our plan as soon as possible.”
Similarly, Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education superintendent Dwayne Zarichny says administrators are in the process of “reviewing the funding allocations provided to us by Alberta Education to determine its fiscal impact on our jurisdiction.”
Regardless of the budget’s impact, he says MHCBE’s priority remains the same.
“We are committed to maintaining the high standard of education that we have been providing to our students and will endeavour to ensure that all of their needs are met,” said Zarichny.
Ryan Boser, secretary treasurer for the Prairie Rose School Division, says it appears PRSD will benefit from the new funding model, but is still exerting caution before the numbers are crunched.
“At first glance the new funding model looks positive with more money coming to Prairie Rose compared to the previous year. That being said, there is still a lot to review and understand about the reallocation of funds from 36 to the 15 new grant lines,” said Boser.
“Until we have time to understand how this compares to previous years and the former funding model, we will not be able to comment on the overall impact to schools and students.”
ATA president speaks
Alberta Teachers Association president Jason Schilling is taking a more critical approach in the immediate aftermath of the budget’s release.
He says $99 million the government says it’s adding to the education budget is in fact being downloaded onto school boards.
“It comes from the school boards’ own source revenue, so they’re saying, ‘OK we’re going to add money to the budget,’ but the budget increase is coming from school boards’ reserves,” said Schilling. “This also includes school-generated funds, which includes things like pop machines and fundraising that parents do for things their kids’ need at school.”
On top of this, the government is “not accounting for enrolment growth fully and completely,” he added.
Documents obtained by the ATA through a freedom of information request revealed the 2019-2020 budget released in October was $136 million short of 2018-19 funding levels, contrary to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s claim that there were “no cuts.”
“The boards all indicated that they could cover the shortfall this last year, but a lot of them had indicated they couldn’t cover another shortfall moving forward,” Schilling cautioned.
According to these documents, MHPSD had a $3.541-million shortfall, a 4.5 per cent cut, which was the fourth-largest decrease by percentage in the province.
MHCBE received a $883,000 cut, or 3.1 per cent, while PRSD’s funding was reduced by $969,000, or 2.2 per cent.
