Over 80 union protesters gathered outside education minister Adriana LaGrange's Red Deer constituency office on Thursday, calling for increased education funding to help address growing safety concerns in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. (rdnewsNOW/Sheldon Spackman)

By Sheldon Spackman

More Funding Needed

Teachers, union members call for more education funding to fight COVID-19 in schools

Nov 12, 2020 | 3:12 PM

Over 80 teachers and union members gathered outside Education Minister Adriana LaGrange’s Red Deer-North constituency office during the noon hour Thursday to call for more funding in addressing growing COVID-19 safety concerns in schools.

CUPE Alberta President Rory Gill says the government is ignoring what he says is a crisis in education.

“Right from the beginning, throughout the summer, gearing up for the beginning of the school year, we asked that we sit down and come up with a plan that could open the schools safely and we still don’t have that,” Gill explained. “This government refuses to take any responsibility for what’s happening, not only in the Education sector but right across the province. Today we want to highlight the schools. We want to say that there needs to be a conversation with unions, there needs to be funding to have proper cleaning and proper support to make sure our schools are safe.”

Gill feels the government is sleep walking through the pandemic.

“It’s something this government does all the time, they blame somebody else for the problems they have, but they are the ones in charge,” he exclaimed. “She (LaGrange) is the minister, it’s up to her to come up with solutions and as we see, we see cases rising every day, we see our school boards going into deficit trying to keep their kids safe, but the government has to take leadership. Our folks are always willing to talk, we’re always willing to find a way, but they keep dismissing us and don’t want to deal with the situation.”

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(rdnewsNOW / Sheldon Spackman)

NDP Education Critic Sarah Hoffman also attended Thursday’s protest and said that aside from some increased PPE for schools, the government has done little to make education a priority during COVID-19.

Reducing class sizes through the hiring of more teachers, educational assistants, and other support staff, would help spread students out, according to Hoffman.

“We all know that having physical distance is one of the best ways to prevent the spread,” she remarked. “There aren’t many schools in this province where you can find two metres of separation between students right now because of the continuous attacks to per-pupil funding across the province. They (classrooms) were already not great last year, but making them even more crowded in a pandemic is unsafe.”

Hoffman says the government simply isn’t listening to the concerns being raised.

“They’ve shown over and over again that they’re going to pretend that the science behind COVID isn’t real, that they don’t need to take additional measures,” says Hoffman. “We’ve seen over 200 schools have COVID cases in the last two weeks. That is not sustainable, it is not healthy.”

Alberta Education Press Secretary Colin Aitchison says it’s disappointing that the NDP and their “union boss allies” continue to claim that schools are unsafe given evidence that clearly indicates otherwise.

“As of today, only 0.1 per cent of staff and students have active cases of COVID-19, and our schools have been able to mitigate spread by following our provincial guidelines,” he said in a statement to rdnewsNOW.

“Regarding funding, we remain committed to providing schools with the resources they need to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students. That is why to date, Alberta taxpayers have funded $10 million in PPE for staff and students, including masks, $120 million in increased operational funding, $250 million in accelerated capital maintenance funding, including HVAC and ventilation upgrades, and access to $363 million in taxpayer-funded reserves.

“This, coupled with the $262 million in federal taxpayer funding,” continues Aitchison. “provides school authorities with access to $1 billion in additional funds, of which three quarters were funded directly by Alberta taxpayers.”

Aitchison says the province is in constant communication with education stakeholders, including the College of Alberta School Superintendents and the Alberta School Boards’ Association, and continues to follow the expert advice of Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.

“We remain committed to adjusting our school guidelines as required.”