UCP education system failing kids and their families
By Lethbridge Herald on June 24, 2022.
Shannon Phillips
NDP MLA for Lethbridge West
The spring rain is slowly but surely making way for a hot prairie summer, while yet another school year winds down for students and teachers across the province. Many Albertan kids are rejoicing for the end of what has been a third pandemic year, one full of uncertainties and challenges that have made it difficult for kids and families alike. But the summer will be only a brief respite before another difficult year begins in the autumn due to the UCPs abysmal curriculum adjustments and cuts to educational funding.
As families across the province continue to struggle in the face of skyrocketing property and income taxes, car and home insurance premiums, utility bills, and more, the UCP have also piled on more school fees and education property taxes. They have the audacity to this do this while continuing to ignore the province-wide need for more schools and educators. With 1,000 fewer teachers than when Rachel Notley was premier, the UCP are refusing to invest in more teachers in already overcrowded classrooms, while blatantly disregarding other educational essentials in our community. Rather than building much-needed new schools, and modernizing existing ones, the UCP have chosen to sabotage public education all across the province, as evidenced by their education budget released in March, which prioritizes only fifteen schools out of over 2,000 public, Francophone, and separate school divisions across Alberta.
In a province where nearly all public, Francophone, and separate schools are over-capacity with fewer teachers and significantly reduced K-12 resources, the UCP government have only built two additional schools in a span of three years. Contrast this to the NDP government, which funded an average of 60 schools a year and included new schools for Lethbridge.
Yet the UCP’s March 2022 announcement of 15 school projects for cities and communities across Alberta doesn’t include any new schools at all for Lethbridge, nor any funding support for schools requiring modernization and expansion, such as Galbraith Elementary School. Despite Lethbridge being the province’s third largest city with a nearly two per cent population growth, the UCP government keeps ignoring families in Lethbridge, with Lethbridge-East UCP MLA Nathan Neudorf failing to rally support in Edmonton for our families.
In addition to this, students with disabilities and learning delays are also having their funding reduced by the UCP. The Program Unit Funding — otherwise known as PUF — saw drastic cuts after the UCP government announced their budget. The PUF funding is necessary for students with learning challenges and it ensures that their unique needs are met within the classroom. Normally including kindergarten students within the funding model, the new budgetary provision for PUF will no longer apply to kindergarten students; instead, those monies will be rolled into a general envelope for the entire school, leaving many students behind and limiting their opportunities for individualized learning support.
This UCPs budget once again leaves vulnerable Albertans in the lurch as they must navigate additional expenses being downloaded onto their families’ resources.
At a time when students are continuing to suffer from pandemic-related stress, the UCP are persistent in their crusade against public services. The fact that they extend this to public education services and funding is shameful, especially given that many students’ mental health and learning capacities have suffered during the pandemic. This is worsened by the reduction of public education funding, which has eroded school-based mental health systems, as well as other vital speech and learning supports. We know that eight out of 10 children who receive mental health support receive that support at school, whether from their teachers, support staff, counsellors, speech pathologists, or learning assistants. Choosing to under-support our kids and under-fund our schools shows that our kids’ educational needs and mental health are not priorities for the UCP government. Our kids do not deserve more barriers to learning; they deserve access to quality education, resources, staffing, learning and mental health supports, and classrooms that aren’t overcrowded. The UCP cannot be trusted with our children’s education.
As families in Lethbridge keep telling me, they need a properly funded public education system that addresses the requirements of students. The UCP’s no-help budget is flagrantly failing kids and families, proving that the education of students is nowhere near a priority. An NDP government will help nurture Alberta’s children by building public schools and putting teachers back into classrooms.
If you, or anyone you know, wants to reach out about this issue, or if you need the assistance of my office, from commissioner of oaths to free notarizing services, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can contact my office by calling 403-329-4644 or by emailing us at lethbridge.west@assembly.ab.ca.
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There will be much to be fixed once the Kenney UCP are voted out.