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Hackett: New school funding addresses only tip of the iceberg

More problems facing education than just student spaces
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Byron Hackett Managing Editor

First, it's important I at least take a few words to address the elephant in the room. 

The Red Deer Advocate is moving to two days a week in print starting Oct. 2 and continuing with our dedicated 24/7 online coverage and twice-daily newsletter. 

As you can guess, we have received plenty of feedback from readers and the community alike, sharing their disappointment with this decision. I completely understand. I was proud of our daily print product and the work that our team put in to get the paper to you five days a week. I was sad to share the news about the transition. 

I arrived in Red Deer in 2016, after the paper had transitioned away from its Monday publication and after we started morning delivery. Both those moves were significant, but nothing like the scale of this most recent change. I still hear about those changes from dedicated readers today. 

So, I expect no less than to hear your passionate and well-reasoned concerns about the current change. I have read most of your emails, listened to many of the calls and messages regarding the new publication schedule and I totally understand. Change is never easy. This is uncharted territory. 

All I can say is that as the Managing Editor, I promise we will continue to deliver a product that you will be proud of as a community and a subscriber. It is what I hoped I could deliver when I started in this role two years ago.

That is still my mission – to tell the stories our community wants to hear and to be a voice for those who feel they are voiceless. We aren't perfect, but we are passionate about local journalism and being a public watchdog for truth in our region. We will remain diligent in that pursuit. 

Thank you for reading and continuing to support us. 

To the subject at hand, the province's ambitious $8.6 billion plan to fast track school construction. I applaud the government for recognizing a problem and taking action. 

By quadrupling the current school construction budget to $8.6 billion, the province aims to offer up 30 new schools each year, adding 50,000 new student spaces within three years. That is huge.

The NDP even called it a "generational investment". That impact will be felt for decades to come in our province's schools. There is concern that this funding will go towards the growth of private and charter schools, which should not be publicly funded, but it's unfair to judge that commitment before we know the true allocations. To be clear, no other provinces funds private institutions to the extent Alberta does. 

This much-needed investment should help in the long term, but it unfortunately ignores the reality that schools are facing overcrowded classrooms and a lack of support staff for students. 

Alberta is short about 5,000 teachers, according to the Alberta Teachers Association, and the Fraser Institute said in a report from 2023, that the province ranks last in per-student funding with $13,464.

That represents just a 2.4 per cent chance in per student funding since 2012-13, with most provinces spending at least 15 per cent or more over that time frame.

Nationally, Alberta actually spent the third highest per student in 2012-13, but as you can see, that number changed little over the subsequent nine years. 

Alberta also spends less as of 2021, per student in public school, than it did 2012-13, about 11 per cent less, one of only two provinces to spend less over that time frame. 

So there are underlying problems that the funding doesn't address, but in fixing this one problem, the province is at least recognizing the need for a solution. 

In her address to announce the funding Tuesday, Premier Smith noted that the province's rapidly accelerating immigration was one factor in the overcrowding of schools. The only issue with that is that it was Smith and her government, with their "Alberta is calling" campaign, that was responsible for much of that population growth, which they reported as about 20,000 in the last fiscal year.

It's perhaps a bit ironic that the premier is pointing the finger at a problem that was of their own making. But maybe, painting themselves as white knight, swooping in to fix the problem, which was one they created, will benefit them in the long run, with an election slated for October of 2025. Smith also has a leadership review on the way, so a funding announcement of this magnitude is likely another play at telling those UCP party members that she is working for them. 

In a way it worked, much of the reaction from Smith supporters and detractors alike was positive. Smith will be in Red Deer on Thursday to address the Alberta Municipalities Conference, and I, for one, will be interested in hearing the message she's going to deliver. 

Byron Hackett is the Managing Editor of the Red Deer Advocate and Regional Editor for Black Press Media. 



About the Author: Byron Hackett

I have been apart of the Red Deer Advocate Black Press Media team since 2017, starting as a sports reporter.
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