K-12 Students Must Be Prioritized in Alberta Budget 2024

“Alberta children deserve to have an adequately funded education system for the growth our province and schools are experiencing. That is not happening. Alberta education is the worst funded in the country. Support Our Students (SOS) Alberta advocates for sustainable and adequate funding so that each Albertan child has equal access to a high quality education.” - Medeana Moussa, Executive Director

SOS would like to see the following in Budget 2024:

• Repair funding formula: Remove the current 3-year weighted moving average funding model that has punished growing city schools. Government needs to fund students in real time so that funding isn’t lagging outdated enrolment numbers. Students need to be funded the year they attend school regardless of when they enter the system. We desperately need significant funding boosts to combat historic inflation and support waves of new families moving to Alberta.
• ​Relieve overcrowded classrooms: Increase funding so that class sizes are back to manageable levels; 40+ kids in a classroom is unacceptable as a direct result of government underfunding education. Make class size data public and track it consistently on an annual basis. Decisions need to be informed by data and fully transparent to the public.
• Support classroom complexities: Invest significant dollars into the system to hire more teachers & support staff, and provide more targeted funds for complex learners.
• Fix, modernize, and expand our schools: Invest in school infrastructure by building new schools where students live and maintain/update existing facilities to ensure students are in safe and healthy environments. Note that students in Calgary’s NW had to be relocated last year due to a roof caving in. 
• ​​Redirect funds back from private outfits: Improve efficiency in the education system by decreasing government funding for private schools, who currently receive 70% of per student funding, and shift that money back to the public system where every student is accepted.
• Curb privatization: Bring charter schools under the management of public school boards. Charters have failed to serve communities as initially intended. Instead of being hotbeds for innovation they have become hotbeds of exclusivity siphoning resources from the public but are not open to the public. It is more efficient to direct funds to public school boards who can manage community needs then have this fragmented approach with Charter schools with little to no oversight or accountability.
  
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Media inquiries:
Wing Li (she/her)
Communications Director
[email protected]