Tory candidates gang up on Stelmach over school cuts

By Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald; Postmedia News

Many of the candidates running for the Progressive Conservative party leadership are putting the blame for this fall's anticipated teacher layoffs on their own provincial government.

They say the Stelmach government didn't play fairly with school boards when it negotiated a long-term contract for teacher salaries and failed to provide the necessary funding to cover it.

"The bottom line is you have to live up to your agreements," said Rick Orman, a former Getty-era cabinet minister.

"If governments don't live up to their agreements, how do they expect anybody else to? ... Don't make the commitment if you don't think you can afford it."

He noted the province negotiated a five-year deal with teachers that included annual salary increases based on Alberta's average weekly earnings index, but then balked at fully funding school boards when faced with a deficit.

School boards across the province said a $100-million funding shortfall will result in layoffs of 1,000 teachers and school staff.

Orman said the Stelmach government also reneged on agreements with Métis settlements and municipalities when the province's financial circumstances changed and it decided it couldn't afford to keep its commitments.

"It's just a reflection of how they deal on a wide range of fronts."

Doug Griffiths said shortchanging the education system is akin to selling off the topsoil of a farm, using a Stelmach analogy to suggest that it was a short-term budget solution that could cost dearly later on.

"We have to make sure we fund the contracts the way they were negotiated, especially when we're the ones that negotiated them," he said.

"The best way to transform our economy and ensure our success for generations to come is to make sure we have the best education system from kindergarten to post-secondary and all the research and development components that go with it," Griffiths said.

Alison Redford said school boards need funding certainty so they can plan the education of Alberta children.

"What we've seen in the last two years with this yo-yo effect is not fair to families and their kids and it's not fair to teachers," she said.

Redford said the teacher layoffs will target younger teachers who are the most technologically savvy.

"If you are the provincial government and you are negotiating contracts, then you have got to be prepared to commit to those contracts," she said.

The province also has to anticipate that teacher aides and other school staff will be seeking the same percentage increase and it must provide sufficient funding to school boards to cover those wage settlements, Redford added.

"We think we can dance around this issue, and we can't."

But Ted Morton, the former finance minister, said he believes his government provided sufficient funding to school boards.

"I think our funding has been stable and it has grown faster than enrolment has been growing," he said. "We spend more per capita than any other province."

Morton blames the recession for the situation, saying it put pressure on school budgets that government didn't anticipate. "That's what has caused the problem," he said.

"The contract expires next year and we're coming out of the recession, so I think those problems will be resolved in the normal course of bargaining."

But Doug Horner, who wants to reduce the school dropout rate by 10 per cent annually for five years, said Alberta has to invest even more in education to do that.

"I think part of the problem is if you start with the dollars first and you say this is the maximum that I am going to be willing to spend, based on a percentage, you have made a lot of your decisions right off the top," he said. "What we need to do is sit down and say: What is the adequate amount we need?" Gary Mar has also committed to providing "stable and predictable funding for school boards" to enable them to plan ahead. And he has promised to review the funding framework every five years to ensure equitable funding across the province.

Mar also says finding a solution for stable labour negotiations with the Alberta Teachers' Association beyond 2012 is a priority.

At the post-secondary level he has committed to creating 3,000 new graduate training spots to support growth in knowledge-intensive industries in Alberta.

Morton has proposed tax credits of up to $20,000 for students who stay in Alberta seven years after they graduate. It's a concept that Orman also embraces.

Horner wants to create a $50-million fund for students to study abroad or do overseas humanitarian projects. He also wants to build a virtual textbook library for all K-12 students and to establish preventive health services in schools.

Redford wants to eliminate provincial achievement tests for students in grades 3 and 6, saying they are too stressful for students. She also wants to end the no-fail policy that she says advances students for social, rather than academic, reasons.

Morton supports funding private schools at a current per student rate of about 60 per cent of public schoolchildren, while Orman doesn't think the province should be funding private schools.

And Griffiths, a former teacher, seeks limits on school fees to prevent them from being a barrier to education for the less fortunate.

By Darcy Henton, Calgary Herald; Postmedia News