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Opposition to Use of Pandemic to Step Up Anti-Social Offensive Alberta Government Uses COVID-19 Pandemic as Pretext to Cut Education FundingAlberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced on March 28 that the government was withdrawing funding for substitute teachers and support staff including educational assistants from all Alberta school boards for staffing during the last two months of the 2019-2020 school year. K-12 education in Alberta is now being provided on line.
The announcement came out just before students and staff at many school boards (including the largest in Calgary and Edmonton) returned from spring break. Over the break, boards and many staff had been working hard to sort out what learning will look like going forward. In some cases, education workers had already begun making home visits for students with significant needs, and arranging for online learning. The government's decision adds further shock to a system where education workers are doing their utmost to get their bearings and prepare to begin on-line classes. The staff who are affected are told that they will qualify for the federal government's enhanced EI program and "other support programs," directly contradicting assurances given by the Minister on March 15 when school closures were announced that school funding would be unaffected, so that staff would not be laid off. On March 3 the government pushed through legislation requiring school boards to get provincial government approval to use reserve funds, removing this option from school boards. The decision was taken with no consultation with the unions and school boards. The press release stated that no funding will be provided to school boards for substitute teachers. How will students continue to receive their education if their teacher becomes sick and is unable to work, even from home? Will their classes simply be cancelled? Does the Minister consider children with special needs expendable and unworthy of the supports they need? When there are so many unmet needs in this crisis, the government is recklessly squandering valuable resources. For example, school bus drivers could be redeployed to bring groceries, meals and other necessities to those who must isolate at home.
Alberta uses a school-based funding model. Schools receive a funding grant based on the number of students enrolled as well as other factors such as the number of English language learners and students with special needs. School principals, in consultation with teaching staff, may decide to have larger classes with more educational assistants, or smaller classes with fewer additional supports. These decisions are made by considering the needs of the students in a particular school. The Minister of Education appears to be both ignorant of and indifferent to the consequences of her decisions, which are based on declaring education workers to be a "cost" and not a precious resource and creators of enormous value. To add insult to injury, school authorities must still submit their 2020-21 budgets by the usual date of May 31, with no administrative or accounting support, and an unknown toll of staff ill with COVID-19. All layoffs must be stopped and reversed immediately. Consultation must take place with the unions as to how staff can be mobilized to provide the necessary support and assistance that the students require to keep abreast of their course material. This includes providing computers, software and internet access to all students who do not have them. A government which values the working people and the youth as its greatest asset would easily identify ways in which educational assistants and support staff could be vital supports to families in a time of crisis. For example, any educational assistants not needed for their regular responsibilities could be reassigned to support public health initiatives, leveraging the connections and relationships they already have with families to ensure that no one is left to fend for themselves during a time of pandemic. Using the pandemic as a pretext to cut education funding is unacceptable and shows that both the Premier and the Education Minister are unfit to govern. Teachers and support staff are working out how to provide students with what they need under these conditions. They are speaking out and demanding that the government abandon this inhuman, reckless, and irresponsible decision at once. They are showing in real life where decision-making power must rest in order for decisions to be made in the interests of the students and education workers.
This article was published in   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The
government's press release provided no
information on what funding was
being withdrawn. The minister's press secretary
later stated that $128
million is being cut from the education budget,
and "redirected" to
unspecified programs to respond to the COVID-19
pandemic. The CBC
reported that a government spokesperson said the
cuts
will amount to a 14 per cent reduction to the
base instruction grant
and 51 per cent to transportation funding. 
The
utter callousness of the government's decision
to cut funding is
underscored by the fact that the education
minister does not even know
how many people are losing their jobs or what
they do. Edmonton Public
Schools board chair Trisha Estabrooks stated
that even the school
boards do not know the exact impact of these
funding cuts.
"There was a need for many, many such staff that
will be affected by
this decision today that we had planned for. We
need them," she said.