Alberta’s new Premier Alison Redford may have restored $107 million in education cuts, but she hasn’t gone far enough according to a local MLA.
Rob Anderson, MLA for Airdrie-Chestermere, is concerned about how Redford is approaching the fall session, which began with just two sittings on Oct. 24 and 25.
One of Anderson’s new roles during the fall session will be as the Wildrose party’s education critic.
“It seems forgotten that every single opposition party had stood up and spoken against these cuts being made in the first place, while Ms. Redford stood shoulder to shoulder with Mr. (Ed) Stelmach (former premier) and voted for them,” Anderson said. “Then, with the PC leadership hanging in the balance, Ms. Redford became the great education crusader.”
Anderson, who will also serve as the Wildrose critic for finance, treasury board, executive council and justice, is critical of the government’s decision to hold a two-day fall session, break for a month and then return for only eight more days later this year.
“To shut the house down in this way is incredibly undemocratic,” he said. “We need to hold the government accountable in question period, although that’s hard to do in this short time period.”
Anderson has a six-point plan he believes will help restore the public’s faith in the education system, as well as the system itself. He would like to see the end of the roller coaster of education funding; keep teacher salary increases sustainable; stop the politicization of new school sites, increase school choice for parents; improve student assessment; and have special needs funding follow the student.
“I want the new premier to unequivocally commit herself to making the reforms necessary to ensure that parents have the schools, teachers, curriculum and special needs funding necessary to a world class education system,” Anderson said. “Good government sets priorities and makes sure that adequate funding gets to those priorities. The PCs have committed to spending billions on carbon capture and storage, new MLA offices, replacement museums, health executive bonuses and cabinet salary increases.
“Quite simply it’s putting needs before wants. Education, for me, is the first priority. If we want to ensure our education system is world class, we need stable funding. We need to be building more schools and hiring more teachers.”
