Premier Alison Redford is now working to reverse former premier Ed Stelmach’s decision to cut $107 million from Alberta Education, made earlier this year.
The news is being met with elation by the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), praising the move made by the former justice minister.
All three candidates in last week’s Progressive Conservative leadership race said they would give the money back, but Redford’s timeline was the quickest — just 10 days.
“It’s nice to get the money back, but it would have been nicer to not have lost it in the first place,” said Dennis Theobald, ATA spokesman.
“We have been looking at the loss of up to 1,200 teaching positions province-wide as a result of the cuts.”
Theobald said team-teaching could be introduced as a fix for overcrowded classrooms and support positions can easily be brought back to assist students with specific learning needs.
“You can do a number of innovative things with two teachers that you can’t do with one in the classroom,” he said. “If we can restore the funding over the longer term, we can restore those positions.”
Rocky View Schools, the province’s fifth-largest school division, potentially stands to receive $3.2 million from Alberta Education.
Superintendent of Schools Greg Bass said he is happy with whatever money may flow to the school division.
“If funds are to come forward, we need to examine very carefully the expenditure of those funds for maximum impact,” said Bass.
One area where RVS may use a portion of its cash infusion is the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI), a program that allows boards to improve student learning within each division. The Stelmach government slashed AISI funding from $80 million to $40 million earlier this year.
Theobald said some school boards had reserve funds and were able to insulate some teaching jobs, but reserves are stretched thin in Rocky View Schools.
“Our reserves, from a financial standpoint, are dangerously low,” said Bass. “We do not have reserves to offset the blows that we had in the system.”
There were, however, no teaching jobs lost in RVS, according to Bass. The division still has 1,000 teaching positions, the same number as it did last year.
“We’ve certainly built an ethos that tough times don’t last, tough people do,” said Bass.
“I’m so very proud of all of our staff in all of our schools because we are persevering through. We’re really focused on the learner.”
The board will have to continue stretching dollars as it has added about 600 more students into its classrooms, according to Bass’ estimates.
