Alberta education budget 2024: ‘More’ does not equal nearly enough

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 
February 29, 2024 

This afternoon, Alberta’s UCP government tabled their 2024 Budget. To our dismay, once again, inadequate K-12 education will continue to starve the rapidly growing public education system. The allotted education funding does not cover inflation and enrollment growth. Funding that doesn’t keep pace equals real cuts. Under the guise of “fiscal restraint,” K-12 students will be left behind without access to much needed support and resources. The majority of Alberta students attend public schools. But their funding requests are denied while the government allots money for private education growth. The disingenuity of “fiscal restraint” is also contradicted by the wasteful diversion of more than $123 million in capital funding over 3 years to subsidize collegiate school programs and charter schools who do not admit all students or service any catchment areas like public schools.
 
“This budget is shortchanging our kids. When you have massive enrollment growth, but funding doesn’t follow every student entering the system, what they're really doing is cutting the pie into smaller pieces and asking each of our kids to make do with less. We see the results - ballooning class sizes, schools over capacity, fewer supports for students with special needs. 

Alberta is spending the least on education* in the country with the highest enrollment growth in Canada. The UCP continues to use the weighted moving average funding model which punishes growing school divisions by not funding students for the year they actually attend school. In addition, more than $1 billion of public money every 4 years flows out of public education to private and charter schools. Alberta invests the least money into public education and simultaneously the most money into private schools, in the country.” 
- Medeana Moussa, Executive Director, Support Our Students

Edmonton Public School Board estimates they will run completely out of high school space by 2027, never mind that students are already busing a long distance from where they live to go to school. Calgary is facing similar space scarcity where high schools such as Western Canada High have created overflow designations for students they cannot fit into their classrooms. According to Statistics Canada, for several years in a row, Alberta’s teachers still have more students than any other province. 

All of this is a disgrace for a rich province boasting about the “Alberta advantage” while public services as important as education are slashed.

A generation of learners in public schools are being left behind by an uncaring and shortsighted government. Alberta’s students will be paying for these steep and sustained budget cuts for decades to come: that will be this government’s true legacy.

*per student 2020-2021, ~13% below national average (StatsCan)

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Media inquiries:
Wing Li (she/her)
Communications Director
yegsosalberta(at)gmail.com