Alberta supports increasing number of students, new formula ‘problematic’

The Government of Alberta announced Thursday it is adding more financial support for a growing number of new students in the province.

The government says in a statement Budget 2023 includes more than $820 million to support the growing student population over the next three years.

The rising number of students is linked to the growing population in the province, the government says.

“With Alberta’s rising population, we know many school authorities across the province continue to face growing enrolment pressures. Our strong funding commitment in Budget 2023 will empower school authorities to hire more teachers and obtain more resources for students,” said Adriana LaGrange, Minister of Education.

The government adds education expenses are expected to rise by around $2 billion over the next three years, and the new support will help manage growing class sizes, as well as hire around 3,000 education staff, including teachers, educational assistants, bus drivers, and school support staff.

School authorities will be provided with a funding manual for 2023/24, explaining funding information for the upcoming year. The manual will be released on March 9.

“Funding increases for enrolment will be provided to school authorities through existing grants that include enrolment components. This includes the Early Childhood Services and Grades 1-9 Base Instruction grant and the High School (Grades 10-12) Base Instruction grant, as well as grants in the services and supports category, such as Specialized Learning Support, English as an Additional Language, and Program Unit Funding,” the statement reads. “The Operations and Maintenance grant also includes an enrolment component. The flexible funding provided allows local authorities to make decisions on how to best use the funding to support their students.”

Marilyn Dennis, president of Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA), says this funding addresses the need to hire more staff members.

“ASBA is pleased that government has been responsive to school boards’ requests for early release of the funding manual and operational funding profiles, as it assists in informed decision-making. Government’s investment in enrolment growth is welcome news as boards address the growing, diverse and complex student needs within their divisions while remaining accountable to their communities,” Dennis said.

Francois Gagnon, president of the Association of School Business Officials Alberta says this funding will help schools “face significant challenges including high inflation and labour shortage.”

New formula ‘problematic’

The president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association Jason Schilling says today’s announcement of the funding is “not enough.”

“We would need $1.2 billion to just get to the Canadian average of funding per student this year,” he said.

He adds the government hasn’t done anything in the previous years regarding the growing number of students.

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“Teachers are dealing with larger class sizes, they’re dealing with more complexities within their classrooms,” he said. “Then you have a system that is struggling to keep up. You keep asking those who are in the system now to do more with less. And we’ve been seeing that for the last couple of years.”

Schilling explains this funding, which is based on a “three-year-average” is “problematic,” as it doesn’t cover students’ expenses from the day they enter Kindergarten until Grade 12.

“This is a new formula that’s come into the system that has been really problematic, and it’s something that needs to be addressed,” he explained.