If there’s one subject that makes my eyeballs do somersaults in their sockets, it’s whenever I have to tackle the subject of education funding.
A couple months back, I wrote about the Class Size Initiative funding distributed out to school divisions and how little sense it made for rural divisions, who consistently meet the majority of class size targets simply because they don’t have sizeable student numbers.
But that’s just one small piece of the confusing and frequently inadequate approach to education funding in this province.
If you read last week’s Barrhead Leader (or are going to read this week’s Westlock News), you’ll see an article about Pembina Hills projecting a $1.9 million shortfall in the funding they use to support students who need more behavioural and learning supports in the classroom.
In fact, Pembina Hills is one of about 48 divisions across the province expecting a deficit in the funding they use to support RTI (Response to Intervention) students.
As well, many divisions are expecting that they won’t be able to fund their transportation expenses or the maintenance projects that their school buildings will need.
And as Pembina Hills board chair Jennifer Tuininga pointed out, there’s also a problem with the “patchwork” approach to high school funding.
While some school divisions are funded based on the number of credits their students accumulate, others who signed up under the High School Redesign model get money based on their average credits from nearly a decade ago.
To put it bluntly, education funding is a mess. I’ve only scratched the surface of the problem, and that’s the best I can do because it’s so completely mind-boggling. It’s more than my brain can handle.
That’s why, as we look to the 2019 election, we should be pressing our candidates on education funding. Not necessarily for an increase, although our local division could definitely use more transportation funding and support for high-needs students.
No, it’s time for a review of the funding formula. It’s clearly not meeting the needs of rural or urban divisions, although the latter at least has larger student numbers to cope.
When the next provincial budget rolls out, Pembina Hills is going to have a better handle on how its finances will look. I’ll cover that to the best of my ability, but I hope some readers make an effort to really absorb the financial woes facing the division.
Then, I hope you carry that to the next election. Pay attention to who’s promising what in regards to education. Ask your candidates if they agree it’s time to do a comprehensive review of education funding in this province.
At the very least, we need to arrive at some kind of formula that doesn’t give people headaches when they try to comprehend it.
