By Troy Gillard

changes

WATCH: Province announces new K-12 education funding model

Feb 18, 2020 | 12:58 PM

EDMONTON – The Alberta government says it is changing the way it will fund kindergarten and grade schools starting this fall.

The plan announced Tuesday by Education Minister Adriana LaGrange includes streamlining grants, capping administration costs and reworking the per-student funding formula.

Under the new model, each school’s per-student funding will be calculated using a formula:

– 20 per cent based on actual enrolment for the year just passed;

– 30 per cent based on an estimate for the current year, and;

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– 50 per cent based on a projection for the upcoming year.

LaGrange hasn’t released specific numbers, saying those will come in the Feb. 27 budget.

“Alberta will continue to have one of the best-funded education systems in the country,” LaGrange said Tuesday. “This new model will drive more money to our school divisions for use in the classroom and provides them with the flexibility they need to meet the unique needs of their students. These changes will ensure our divisions continue to be equipped to provide our students with a world-class, high quality education.”

Schools currently don’t know how much money they are getting each year until enrolments are finalized sometime after classes have started which can cause uncertainty and mid-year budget complications.

The new formula is to use enrolment estimates, so schools will know each spring how much money they are getting for the school year starting that fall.

This marks the first change to Alberta’s funding model for K-12 education in more than 15 years.

“For many years, school boards have been asking for sustainable, predictable, and adequate funding for education. Today’s announcement by Minister LaGrange of a new funding model for education in Alberta in many ways responds to the input provided by school boards,” says Nicole Buchanan, Red Deer Public Schools Board Chair.

Buchanan notes, however, that their district is still facing a $4 million funding shortfall and that her board has tough decisions ahead to overcome it. She is anxious to see what next week’s provincial budget, and a meeting with LaGrange the following day, to learn the full impact of the funding overhaul.

“We won’t know our actual budget numbers until Mid-April. We have been advised that there will be more money,” Buchanan noted. “We don’t know how much more that is. Hopefully, it’s substantial.”

(With file from The Canadian Press, government media release)