| Challenges ahead for local school boards |
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| Local Content - Editorial |
| Written by production |
| Thursday, 18 February 2010 18:15 |
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There are challenging times ahead for school districts across the province. With the announcement Alberta’s teachers will be getting a raise of six per cent this year, after an arbitrator got involved in the process, some divisions are left wondering where the extra money will come from. Locally, Palliser Regional Schools is still reviewing the impact of the new provincial budget and what affect it will have on the local school budget. With the provincial budget announced last week, it appears school districts are bracing for the coming storm. There is good news, however, as educational funding has been increased 0.7 per cent from the 2009/2010 forecast. To put that into perspective though, 2010/2011 educational program expenses rose 4.9 per cent from 2009/2010. But unless a radical new provincial sales tax is launched or natural gas prices suddenly bust through the roof, it is difficult to see where any extra money will come from in order to please everyone. Palliser will have to look at any upcoming budgets with a fine-tooth comb, and make some decisions that will likely not be very popular. For a school district already hit with a claw back of funding by the province, Palliser has already made cuts to staff and programs in this school term. In the face of a basically status quo funding picture for this year it looks like more cuts may be unavoidable. The problem becomes, where does the money come from? In order for those in the education system to have everything they want — small class sizes, the very best programs, top-notch technology and consistent pay raises, something has to give if the money simply is not there. That could leave our education system with some very serious decisions to make. As progress has been made on class-size initiatives over the years, do those now take a back seat? Will some of the programs school districts have worked hard to bring into area schools go the way of the dodo? Simply put, cuts are going to be felt everywhere in Alberta in 2010, not just in education. However, a look at the new budget reveals fears of deep cuts to education will not come to pass. Still, in the years to come, a long-range plan will be needed on how to best deal with the wants and needs of our educational system. A balance needs to be struck between the Ralph-Klein-style cuts that devastated our infrastructure, and a realistic approach to controlling costs and maintaining services. In short, some drastic changes may well be coming for Alberta. |
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