Ms Notley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Education is shortchanging students by deliberately underfunding Alberta's public education system. By the time September rolls around and teachers are due for a salary increase, this minister will have racked up at least $175 million in an education funding shortfall. Why is the Minister of Education taking resources out of the classroom instead of doing what's right and providing sufficient funding up front to ensure our children's education isn't made to suffer?

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, we're not taking resources out of the classroom. In fact, budgets for school boards this year are the same overall as budgets last year. There is a requirement that school boards do have contracts with teachers for salary increases, and we're going to have to work with the teachers and with school boards to find in the long-term how we deal with those salary increases in a time of fiscal restraint. But the budgets are the same as last year: no monies, no cuts.

Ms Notley: Well, Mr. Speaker, we've seen the letters that school boards are sending home with children. Parents are fearful of warnings that school staff and resources will be cut back because of this minister's failure to adequately fund education. To the minister. You have had two years to plan for these cost pressures. Why do parents, teachers, and kids have to wait another several months for you to figure it out, all the while worrying about the future of their education?

Mr. Hancock: Well, Mr. Speaker, parents and students shouldn't have to worry about the future of education. We've talked to school boards. The school boards in this province are on the strongest financial footing anywhere. There is approximately $360 million in operational reserves in the school system in this province. What we've said to school boards is . . . [interjection] Edmonton-Riverview is very rude today, Mr. Speaker.

What we've said to school boards is: "Do not adjust the student-teacher ratio. If you need to draw from your reserves, do so. If you need to go into deficit, do so." We'll work on the long-term agreement with teachers because there are always questions with respect to wages and resources.

Ms Notley: Well, Mr. Speaker, the school boards' surplus is not this government's personal piggy bank. Now, schoolchildren are coming home with fearful tales that cuts are coming and that their education will suffer. Parents and school boards are worried, and this minister is trying to scapegoat the teachers by failing to fund a salary increase that he signed off on. Why is the minister sacrificing the quality of our children's education instead of funding current education levels like he promised?

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, far from sacrificing the education of students today, I'm fighting hard to make sure that we improve education for students today. I'm working with school boards and with the ATA to make sure that happens. We do need to work through a period of time where we've got because of the arbitrated process, we understand, the adjustment from the average weekly earnings index. We do have some work to do, both short term and long term, in terms of how we finance that. Basically, there is only so much money, and the money can go to wages, or it can go to numbers of teachers. Either way we have a one-year period to do what the school boards are quite adequately funded to deal with. Over the longer term we'll deal with what those increases are over the first, second, third, and fourth years.