2023 Provincial Election Advocacy

ASBA Election Advocacy Priorities

School boards play a central role in ensuring decisions that affect students most are made by those who know them best. Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) supports Alberta’s 61 public, catholic and francophone school boards, representing over 670,000 students across the province.

ASBA’s member board schools offer an abundance of programs including internationally recognized programs. Boards provide access to quality educational opportunities regardless of students’ background or circumstances. This includes providing support for diverse learning needs and ensuring equal access to educational programming.

The following priorities guide ASBA’s provincial election advocacy:

  • Funding
  • Capital planning
  • Cross-ministerial supports
  • Transportation

ASBA Engagement with Party Leaders

As a non-partisan association, ASBA invited political party leaders from the Alberta Party, New Democratic Party and United Conservative Party to share their election platform and education priorities in advance of the 2023 Alberta provincial election.

Questions posed to leaders were informed by feedback from ASBA’s locally-elected public, catholic and francophone school board members to promote the importance of continuous support of the education system and elevate the value of school boards as the voice of education.

Party leader engagement with the Alberta Party

 

Party leader engagement with the New Democratic Party

 

Party leader engagement with the United Conservative Party

ASBA Election Advocacy Priorities Explained

Funding

Flexible, adequate and sustainable funding would better meet the needs of our students. While school boards appreciate the predictability of funding of the current Weighted Moving Average (WMA) model, it does not fully fund enrolment growth. Additional funding applied to base funding would allow boards to be more efficient in directing dollars into targeted areas without considerable administrative costs. School boards face unique challenges including fluctuations in enrolment, space utilization, increasing complexity in classrooms, lengthy bus rides, and hiring and retaining of teachers and support staff.

Capital planning

Capital planning is a priority for school boards. Clarity on the new School Planning Program phases, and consultation on the capital planning process, would support well-informed decision making in relation to providing adequate, modern and appropriate learning spaces for our students. School boards appreciate Operations and Maintenance funding to address inflationary pressures, however, adjustments to Operations and Maintenance funding should be considered in consultation with school boards to ensure real costs are met.

Cross-ministerial supports

School boards are committed to ensuring the well-being and health needs of our students are met. Student well-being and health needs can be complex and require the services of other professionals, such as counsellors, psychologists, occupational and/or physical therapists. Collaboration with ASBA, school boards, education partners and child-centred ministries, would help ensure schools have the supports they need.

Transportation

While school boards appreciate the changes to Mandatory Entry Level Training (MELT) requirements for Class 2 licenses to help alleviate school bus driver shortages, student transportation continues to be a priority for school boards with the upcoming new transportation framework. Consultation on the new framework including adjustments to walk limits and distance calculation, would assist in ensuring realistic, attainable and equitable student transportation. Additionally, it would alleviate staffing challenges due to staff shortages, wages and attrition.