Household spending needs to be balanced, says ASBA
Release date: September 1, 2000
The President of the Alberta School Boards Association is taken aback that the provincial government is not providing a significant portion of its $5 billion surplus to the children of Alberta. The provincial government yesterday announced it had accrued a projected $5 billion surplus for this year so far, making it the sixth consecutive year Alberta will record a budget surplus. The government is allocating $4.5 billion of the projected surplus to debt reduction.
"Public education is stretched to the limit and, while funding has been provided for school buildings, a large backlog of repairs still exists," said ASBA President Lois Byers. "While paying the mortgage is important, you must continue to meet the needs of your family while you do it. "
"Alberta should be proud to be in a position to increase funding for education and to be able to repair and build schools," said Byers. "We must ensure we can reach the goal of educating all children well, while wisely dealing with debt," said Byers. "Allocating 90 percent of earnings to debt retirement, while some of your children go without , is not wise."
"I remind the government that at the Growth Summit, Albertans from all walks of life said they wanted to put people first and first among these must be our young people. This period of unprecedented prosperity presents a terrific opportunity for Alberta to continue the transition from a resource based economy to the knowledge-based economy of the future," said Byers. "Investing in the education of Alberta's children is the only way to do this. The preparatory work we do with children in our schools today is fundamental to them and the future of Alberta's economic well-being."
"I acknowledge that the provincial government has recently reinvested in education. I remain optimistic that Albertans will continue to give the government the message that we still have urgent needs in education. Yes, we have been working with Minister Oberg and Alberta Learning to resolve the issues, but we aren't there yet. The reinvestment in people we have seen in the past must continue."
For more information contact: Lois Byers, President, Alberta School Boards Association at 1.780.632.9685.
The Alberta School Boards Association serves and represents all Alberta’s public, separate and francophone school boards.
