Two UCP MLAs admit Premier Kenney's claims of maintaining funding for students are false

In two media articles, UCP MLAs Angela Pitt and Peter Guthrie both admit that instead of maintaining funding for education, the UCP government is actually making cuts.  

In a November 13 interview with Discover Airdrie, Pitt admitted that her local school district, Rocky View Schools, is facing funding reductions. In a separate interview with Discover Airdrie, Guthrie also concedes that Rocky View Schools is grappling with “a decrease in provincial government funding.” 

Both Pitt and Guthrie go on to accuse the school board of exaggerating the impact of UCP cuts, with Pitt going so far as to say that rather than simply adjust to the deep cuts from the UCP Rocky View Schools was overstating “larger classroom sizes and massive changes in the middle of the school year” and loss of “jobs within our school system”.

“We have watched the Premier and the Minister of Education repeatedly stand in the Legislature and claim they have followed through on a campaign promise to maintain education funding,” said Sarah Hoffman, NDP Official Opposition Critic for Education and MLA for Edmonton-Glenora. “Even the UCP’s own MLAs recognize that claim is bogus, but rather than properly funding students, the government’s MLAs have turned to picking fights with school trustees.

“The UCP’s budget will force Albertans to pay more for less while big corporations cash in on a $4.7-billion no-jobs corporate handout. Our students are suffering and teachers are being laid off.”