Jeff Johnson, the recently re-elected Progressive Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater, has been named the new Minister of Education in Premier Alison Redford’s new cabinet.
“I’m very excited about it,” Johnson said. “It’s a huge responsibility and it’s quite humbling that the Premier would have enough faith in me to ask me to do this.”
The former Minister of Infrastructure intends to hit the ground running with his new portfolio.
“We have to stop thinking of ourselves as being in the schooling business and we’ve got to consider ourselves in the education business,” he said, noting that the education of a student must come from the whole community.
“We need to be pulling in resources and partnerships and collaborating with every part of the community we can. Our schools and infrastructure need to be hubs of the community, and we use that infrastructure the best we can.”
Johnson wants to give students the tools they need to succeed and reach their full potential.
“At the end of the day, the student has to come first,” he said. “We’ve got to be continually challenging ourselves.”
Aspen View School Division board chair Brian Bittorf said he was looking forward to working with Johnson in his new role.
“Our congratulations to Jeff,” Bittorf said. “I think that it’s just great that he continues to be in the cabinet and he’s taking on a very important role in education for all of Alberta.”
Johnson said he is getting settled and is being briefed on what Thomas Lukaszuk, the prior Minister of Education, had been focusing on.
“I met with the Alberta School Board Association today, so we’re reaching out to the main stakeholders,” Johnson said. “There are several pressing items that I need to work with.”
Johnson said there are a lot of capitol projects that need to be built, finished, and decided upon.
“We also have the Education Act, which is a bit concerning to some Albertans,” he explained. “What we’re going to do there is take a little more time to digest everything we’ve heard over the election, discuss that with our new caucus and we’ll bring the Education Act back in the fall or the following spring when we’ve had time to make sure we’ve got it as strong as possible.”
The third concern Johnson has is the teacher’s contract negotiations.
“We still have a deal with them right now, but it expires in August, so we’d like to see that get renegotiated,” he explained.
When asked about his stance on program-based funding, he said he wants to change the way education is funded.
“The funding that flows through to the school boards is predominantly, but not exclusively based on per capita funding,” Johnson said.
“I think the challenge for us, right across the province, is to make sure the resources are there to fund the programs that are needed, and all kids, and all Albertans have access to the opportunities that we want to give them as a province and as parents.”
Bittorf said he believes in Johnson and his ability to make education in Alberta a top priority.
“I think he’s well suited for it,” Bittorf said.
“He’s very familiar with the education system. In working with us here in Aspen View, I think he’s very aware of some of our concerns. Just the idea that coming from a rural setting and seeing how things worked here in Aspen View, that he would have a very good perspective of how everything affects rural boards.”
Going forward, Johnson wants to look at any changes that may help to deliver quality programs to every student in the province, and Bittorf is eager to assist.
“We look forward to working with him, and I think that we can have a very good working relationship,” he said.
Johnson said that prior to being elected he worked closely with more than 30 different school divisions across the province when he owned a Xerox company.
“We not only worked closely with the boards and superintendents, but we initiated a whole host of things relevant with respect to knowledge management in school, and knowledge and document management solutions in schools,” he said. “I started a document management symposium, which is now an international symposium.”
Johnson thinks there will be some overlap from his days as Minister of Infrastructure.
“I had to do a lot of work on a capital planning side for schools, and for education. I have been on the treasury board, and worked a fair bit with budgets and the education budget.”
