Mr. Griffiths: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After doing a little bit of research, it came to my attention that from 2004 until 2009 there was an increase of 3,300 teachers in Alberta's school system, but there was only an increase of 12,000 students. That represents a 10.5 per cent increase in the number of teachers, but the student population only went up by 1.4 per cent. To the Minister of Education: what would drive such a huge increase in the teacher population relative to a small growth in the student population?

Mr. Hancock: Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's a very clear answer to that, the class size initiative. We've hired almost 3,000 teachers in order to meet the class size policy that was put in place after the ACOL report, Alberta's Commission on Learning. Almost all of those teachers that you're talking about are in response to meeting the class size initiative.

Mr. Griffiths: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Cities like Las Vegas have realized that an exceptional growth in their student population warranted more schools, but they also realized that they did not have the budget to build or maintain those needed schools. To better utilize taxpayers' dollars, they've opted to educate students in shifts and run year-round schooling to better utilize the space they have. Our school buildings, new or old, sit empty for a third of the year and half the afternoon and evening. To the minister: have you considered adopting some of those well-developed methods to better utilize the school space that we currently have so that Education dollars go to educating students rather than to buildings and maintenance?

Mr. Hancock: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In fact, there are a number of situations around the province where school boards have put in place programs either to do year-round schooling or to extend the school day, in some cases even considering whether double-shifting might be possible, to use the school on two different school days within one date, so to speak. Of course, there are always the issues of change management, which have to be dealt with. We've become used to the concept that we go to school for certain months of the year and for certain times of the day, but that really, clearly, has to change.

Mr. Griffiths: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We spend a lot of money building, running, and maintaining school buildings. I think the minister has picked up from my previous question that I have concerns about how we focus our expectations and performance requirements usually on the building rather than on outcomes. To the Minister of Education: do you have plans in place to help with that change management that will refocus our attention to the fact that our province's future rests on well-educated children, not on whether a community or neighbourhood has an attractive building to stand in?

Mr. Hancock: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I'm firmly of the opinion that public buildings should be attractive and should be the hub of the community and should be a place that we can be proud of.

The hon. member is absolutely right. As we go through the Inspiring Education process, talking about what kind of education we need to be successful in the future, we also have to look at our physical platforms and say: are the schools that we have performing the function that we need? There would have to be a lot of review on what an education facility looks like while recognizing that we have those facilities; they're important to communities in terms of libraries, gymnasiums, and the other things that are essential.