Posted on Feb 10, 2020
Documents prove Education Minister LaGrange lied about school funding cuts
Minister Adriana LaGrange cut funding to Alberta’s schools to more than $136 million below 2018 levels, according to government documents released through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“Minister LaGrange has been caught in a lie,” said Sarah Hoffman, NDP Official Opposition Critic for Education. “While she told Albertans she was maintaining school funding, documents from her own department prove that she knew she was cutting more than $135 million from classrooms across the province.”
Seventy-six pages of Alberta Education budget documents, known as jurisdictional profiles, obtained by the Alberta Teachers Association, show reduced funding for districts in 2019 compared to 2018.
“Students, families, teachers, and staff are already feeling these cuts,” Hoffman said. “Classes are more crowded, bus rides are getting longer, kids with complex needs are losing their crucial educational assistants, and families are being hit with hundreds of dollars in mid-year fees.
“All of this cruelty begins with Minister LaGrange’s decision to choose a $4.7-billion corporate handout over Alberta students’ education. She lied about it, but now we have it in black and white.”
