Excerpts
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The cuts to the Program Unit Funding (PUF), which supports kids who are two to five years old, took effect in fall 2020. Today, five and a half years later, classroom complexity is dominating education news. It was a central issue in the teacher strike last fall, and since then, the provincial government has promised to fund hundreds of new teaching teams to intervene in the hardest hit schools.
The complexity and chaos in today’s classrooms is also part of why teachers are now deeply divided on the long-held vision of inclusive education — teaching students with disabilities within mainstream classrooms — something Alberta proudly promoted for decades.
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The provincial government cut back funding for mild and moderate disabilities, cut the number of years kids could access help ahead of grade school, reduced targeted funding for kindergarten kids, and reduced co-ordination funding for specialists, especially for publicly-run pre-school programs.
In jurisdictions where pre-k childhood support had been delivered mostly by public school districts, programs were slashed or cancelled.
Edmonton Public School Division closed 26 early learning sites when the cuts hit and still have only six sites operating, according to officials. Edmonton Catholic officials said they closed 42 sites, leaving 10 in their 100 Voices Program in fall 2020. In years that followed, they closed further sites and are only now increasing again to seven sites next year.
Lethbridge School Division dropped from 19 sites to 10; Calgary public dropped from 16 pre-school sites to just three. Calgary Catholic officials said they have never had a large PUF-funded program, and have always relied more on private operators such as Renfrew Education and Providence.
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Minister says he boosted the funding
CBC invited Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides to speak to this issue on The Eyeopener. He wouldn’t say if the 2020 cuts to early learning support by his predecessor had been a mistake, but said since he became minister he’s made significant investments.
“I’ve directed substantial investments to early intervention programs. We’ve made significant investments to the PUF program that supplies some of that early intervention,” he said.
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Later, his office provided the total funding awarded through PUF by year from 2019-20. The numbers show funding has increased during Nicolaides's years as minister, but is still significantly less than it was before 2020.
In Calgary, board of education Superintendent Jennifer Turner cautioned against blaming one budget line for the level of complexity schools are seeing today.
She oversees school improvement and said new programs such as the early elementary screening for literacy is also significant.
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Teachers see a lack of support in the classroom
In the CBC Teachers’ Questionnaire, teachers said students in their classes need far more support than is available, and many said cutbacks mean that people who used to be there to help aren’t any longer.
“There are zero supports compared to years earlier,” said one elementary school teacher. “In Alberta, inclusion looks a lot more like neglect,” said a high school teacher.
“We would need so much extra funding to support the large number of these students that it does not feel like that would even be a possibility,” said another elementary school teacher in the Calgary area.
“Everyone has the right to education, but needing to meet so many distinct needs at once, actually dilutes learning and is a detriment for learners who are at grade level,” said a principal of a middle school.
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Because the cuts and continuing lack of resources has been too much. She’s looking for a different job in education next year.