Education funding is one of the issues the NDP opposition is going after the UCP government.
Amanda Champan, the NDP’s Education Critic, says while class sizes are increasing, there’s also concerns from teachers about class complexity.
“It’s not just about having fewer teachers, it’s also a lack of support staff in the way of EA’s (educational assistants) Then in rural areas particularly what we see is a lack of access to the specialized support services. That’s things like your like your occupational therapists and speech language pathologists.”
Last week the Alberta Teachers Association came out with a report claiming that several local school boards will be receiving less funding for the next school year.
Chapman says capital funding for school infrastructure has some “commonalities” in both rural areas and big cities.
“One of the things that we’ve heard actually is that the supplemental enrollment growth grant, which is something that comes to growing boards later in the year, that’s meant to cover the costs of in year additions of students. What we have heard is that many school boards are in fact having to use that fund to cover off emergency maintenance costs.”
Chapman adds that school boards need more funding “if we want to see the best outcomes for out learners.”
You can listen to the full interview below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
