Mother says Alberta budget cuts harming potential of Down syndrome daughter

<p>EDMONTON – Alberta’s opposition New Democrats are putting a human face on the cost of provincial education cuts.</p> <p>Nine-year-old Erin Carter, a little girl in pigtails, round glasses and with Down syndrome, sat next to her mother at a news conference at the legislature.</p> <p>Kelly Carter says her daughter is being moved into a larger class with students as young as five years old because cuts have forced consolidation at her Edmonton school.</p> <p>Carter says educators are hamstrung by budgets that have either been frozen or reduced in recent years.</p> <p>She said she has tried to get help for Erin, but instead only gets the runaround as the school board tells her to talk to the Education Department, which in turn tells her to talk to the school board.</p> <p>NDP education critic Rachel Notley says the combination of a loss of $100 million provincewide and the fourth year of a funding freeze for special needs children severely threatens their education.</p>