Letter to MLA from a concerned parent

To MLA
From Parent

It is with a sense of despair that I have been learning how the Provincial government's education budget for 2011-12 will impact virtually every school board in Alberta. I am a parent of 2 children in the public education system, and I attended the Rally in Support of Education Funding on May 7th in Calgary. There were several speakers who had travelled from other parts of the province to inform us that every Board was facing deep staff cuts. It is clear these claims from the Boards are universal and cannot be blamed on individual Board mismanagement.

The education system has made such progress since the implementation of the Learning Commission's recommendations to reduce class sizes, but now the government seems to be willing to destroy all the gains that have been made. These are my deep concerns:-

1. We will lose many fine teachers from the province forever and some may leave the teaching profession altogether.

2. The money the government saves now will need to be spent many times over in the future educating new teachers to replace the ones we will lose.

3. We will lose many students from the public sector to the private sector. I know personally several students who made this move in order to get the smaller class sizes that private schools offer. We need to be adding teachers not losing them.

4. We will lose extra-curricular activities including sports. These sports and clubs enrich our children's education in many ways, and are an important part of teaching them to be caring, engaged, global citizens. We cannot expect our teachers to be able to absorb increases in class sizes and teach more curricula without something else giving.

5. We will discourage bright students from entering the teaching profession.

I believe that education is like a basic foodstuff and funding should remain stable. It should not be treated as discretionary spending to be cut back when funds are tight. I am appalled that $340 million is to be spent on a new museum in Edmonton, whilst education funding is inadequate. This museum project should be delayed again until the province's economy recovers and the money spent to maintain and improve our education system. It's like buying a new home theatre system when there is no food on the table!

Finally I looked at the government's Education Business Plan for 2011-2014 signed by The Hon Dave Hancock QC on February 2, 2011. Its Goal 2a is for satisfaction with the quality of basic education to improve 2% by 2011-12. Goal 2d is for the perception that Alberta's education system has improved in the last 3 years to improve 2% between 2009-10 and 2013-14. How, I ask, can this be possible when the government will not fund the teachers’ salary increases that it negotiated back in 2007 and how can it be asking fewer teachers to do more?

I live in abc community, in your riding. I understand that you believe in sustainability of education funding and I implore you to fight on our behalf for education funding to be restored for the next school year.

Thank you and I look forward to reading your response.