Edmonton Public School Board warns of impact that cuts to public education would have

An Edmonton Public School Board trustee who requested a report on how potential cuts to public education in Alberta might affect its schools says he is worried that politicians may turn their sights on classrooms in an attempt to balance the province’s budget.

“Even a hair-trigger response from the province can have dramatic effects on the local classroom,” Michael Janz told Global News on Tuesday.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Even a hair-trigger response from the province can have dramatic effects on the local classroom," Michael Janz told Global News on Tuesday.

A report to the board released on Tuesday projected enrolment growth of 2.9 per cent for the 2018-19 school year and explored four potential scenarios in terms of how policy decisions may impact its operations:

•  the possibility of no funding for enrolment growth;
•  a potential hiring freeze;
• a three per cent decrease to the EPSB’s budget for the next four years;
• a five per cent decrease to the EPSB’s budget for the next four years.

The report determined nearly 95 per cent of the school board’s operating budget is depends on government funding and that staffing was its largest expense, accounting for about 80 per cent of its budget. It also said the “number of students supported by the district has grown by over three per cent per year for the last six years.”

“Any changes to education funding have a significant impact on the Edmonton Public School Board’s operations,” the report said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Any changes to education funding have a significant impact on the Edmonton Public School Board's operations," the report said.

READ MORE: Edmonton public high schools will be overcrowded by 2021: report

According to the report, a three per cent decrease to its budget over the next four years would amount to a funding loss equal to about 841 full-time jobs in Year 4 funding alone. The report suggested a five per cent decrease over the next four years would amount to a funding loss equal to about 932 full-time jobs in Year 4 funding alone.

Janz said he believes any cuts to funding would take a major toll on the board.

“We would see staff reductions, we would see impacts to schools,” he said.

“The current government’s commitment to education has provided the district with relatively stable funding,” the report said. “Although the funding rates have not been adjusted to offset inflationary increases, the district has continued to receive enrolment growth funding.”

The report’s authors wrote that they were commissioned to do the research because of “uncertainty around the upcoming spring 2019 provincial election.”

READ MORE: Period of austerity required to balance Alberta budget: UCP leadership hopeful Jason Kenney

While running to become leader of the United Conservative Party last year, Jason Kenney said he believed Alberta needs austerity measures for a while if he becomes premier in 2019 in order to fix the problems he says the NDP government has caused.

“We will have to go through a period of sustained fiscal restraint,” he said in September 2017. “That doesn’t mean cutting 20 per cent of our budget, but it does mean learning from how B.C. and other provinces deliver the same services so much more efficiently.”

On Tuesday, Kenney responded to the EPSB report and suggested there’s no need to be alarmed.

“I don’t accept the premise of the report,” he said. “I’m not aware of anybody who, for example, has been proposing five per cent cuts in spending.

“Surely in the province with the highest per capita spending in Canada, we can find some efficiencies to control spending that don’t affect front-line services.”

You can view the EPSB report in its entirety below.