By Sheldon Spackman

Working With Less

Alberta School Councils’ Association adjusting to significant budget cut

Nov 24, 2020 | 1:08 PM

Officials with the Alberta School Councils’ Association (ASCA) are expressing surprise and disappointment over a recent decision by the provincial government to slash their funding by 75 per cent this year.

The organization represents parents on school councils to engage with Alberta’s education ministry.

ASCA President Brandi Rai says there was no collaboration or consultation prior to receiving the funding cut four months into their operating year.

“ASCA recognizes that these are fiscally challenging times,” admits Rai. “The ASCA Board would have been happy to collaborate with ABEd to find a solution that reduced our grant while providing enough funds to continue to meaningfully support school councils across our province.”

ASCA provides supports, training and resources to ensure school councils have the knowledge and skills to fulfil their legislated role and operate effectively. The organization receives funds from Alberta Education targeted to support this work.

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In a letter to the ASCA on Nov. 12, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange noted the decision was made due to the current economic climate, and following careful consideration of every grant the ministry funds.

“I have decided to shift ASCA’s taxpayer-funded grant funding to be more in line with that of the grants government provides to other education stakeholders, such as the Alberta Teachers’ Association, the Alberta School Boards’ Association, the College of Alberta School Superintendents, and the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta,” wrote LaGrange. “As such, I have approved a one year grant of $170,000 for your organization to carry out specific work identified by Alberta Education.”

LaGrange further noted that the new grant funding is also in line with the MacKinnon Panel’s recommendation that government reduce the proportion of funding directed to administration and system supports in order to ensure a greater percentage of funds goes directly to classrooms and students.

“I recognize that in the past, ASCA has relied on grant funding from government to fund operations, and that these changes will require time for your organization to adapt,” wrote LaGrange. “It is my understanding that in addition to the $170,000 Alberta taxpayers are funding for the 2020-21 school year, you also have roughly $250,000 in taxpayer-funded reserves. Between this taxpayer funding and your projected $87,000 in revenue from membership fees, I anticipate you will be able to transition with success.”

Rai, however, says the message that the MacKinnon Report is more important than the voices of parents in Alberta, coupled with identifying support and personal development for school councils as administrative waste, is concerning.

“The ministry is also not seeing how fundamentally and operationally different ASCA is from other education partners,” she points out. “ASCA members are not legislated to be our members and do not pay thousands of dollars to be a member – It is $65 per school council. ASCA is a non-profit organization working hard to make every dollar received stretch to serve thousands of parents and school communities across Alberta.”

Rai says ASCA is now looking at a significantly reduced budget to transition to a new model.

“The conditional grant was approximately 85 per cent of our operating budget with the remainder of our financial resources coming from school council membership and a small number of sponsors for our annual conference,” she explains. “A 75 per cent cut will have a massive impact. Services and resources are going to need to be restructured in order to match the funding we have received.”