CBE Job Cuts - thoughts...

Job cuts in CBE notes and thoughts:

- Alberta's education minister Dave Hancock addressed the ATA on May 26, 2010. You can read the transcript of his speech here. During the address Mr. Hancock skirted a fine line; assuring the teachers that they are respected and valuable professionals while concurrently suggesting they are an overpaid burden on the budget.

- An important note he made also points out that Alberta Education has and continues to encourage boards in the province to run a deficit and not to lay off teachers.

- He makes reference to the sustainability fund and the province's policies surrounding its use and encourages the boards to model their accounting practices around that. Obviously not all school boards have reserves in the billions of dollars so a deficit will be long term for them regardless. The CBE had 19 million dollars in 'savings' and say they are using it for this budget to help reduce the swelling numbers of layoffs.

- The bottom line here is that Alberta Education has actually given more money to the CBE than it did last year. The budget the CBE created calls for the job cuts (some of which will come through natural attrition - I can't find out how many).

- Maybe we need to focus on encouraging our Trustees to spend more in deficit and ensure a continued quality in the classroom now instead of creating a less than ideal environment in hopes of getting better funding next year.

- It is easy to get caught up in blaming the government for budget problems but the decisions for deficit spending, funding allocations, and ultimately teacher lay-offs is in the hands of our board - not Alberta Education.

These are just some personal thoughts on this very complicated matter. As parents we really only care about one thing - a good education and school environment for our kids. To most of us that means a reasonable class size with a professional and caring teacher. Don't mess with that and we'll all be happy.

You have been encouraged to reach out to your MLA, Alberta Education, and the Premiere. I've included links to all three here. Please use them to let your thoughts be known. I've added our Trustee as well - tell all of these people what you think and what you want, ask them questions, they are here to answer to you.

Heather Forsyth MLA - calgary.fishcreek@assembly.ab.ca
Honourable Dave Hancock - dave.hancock@gov.ab.ca
Premiere Ed Stelmach
Carol Bazinet (Trustee) - cabazinet@cbe.ab.ca