New challenges facing Edmonton Catholic schools amid provincial funding shortfalls. The division board says full-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs will be impacted the most.
While the division approved its 2024-2025 operating budget last week, they forecasted a $14.2 million deficit.
“That’s not a comfortable position for us. It’s a matter of serious concern. This current year, the calculation shows we’re educating over 2000 who are unfunded. Not underfunded-unfunded,” said Terence Harris, a trustee with the Edmonton Catholic School Division.
The number of schools offering full-day kindergarten, including 100 voices programs will also be reduced.
The board criticises Alberta’s education funding model which was introduced in 2020.
The provincial funding model follows a weighted average formula which calculates per-student funding using school enrollment counts from the previous and current school years and a projected enrollment for the next year.
“We have no choice but to move from the Cadillac services that we offer to less services and that’s because of the weighted moving average of the funding model,” said Debbie Engel, a trustee with the Edmonton Catholic School Division.
This, drawing heavy criticism from Alberta NDP saying Monday “the loss of full-day kindergarten programming at some Edmonton schools is an abject failure of Danielle Smith and the UCP.” Adding, “the UCP have taken Alberta from one of the top-funded school systems per-student, to the least funded per-student.”
But in a statement to CityNews, the Minister of Education says they are stepping up to fund population growth in Alberta schools. Saying, “the Edmonton Catholic School Board and Edmonton Public School Board received over $77 million in new funding this year alone.”
But according to the Edmonton Catholic Schools Board, this is not enough.
“Our funding model doesn’t account fully for the inflation at a time when inflation is a significant factor,” said Harris. “As a funding model, it disincentivizes growth of enrollment in the province.”