For the past eighteen months, the education sector has engaged in many conversations about the future of learning in our province. The five year agreement between the Government of Alberta and the Alberta Teacher's Association, subsequently effected in part by collective agreements between school boards and ATA locals, created a clear time frame where work like Inspiring Education could happen without the needless distractions of bargaining and "labour relations." The Government of Alberta has strongly maintained its commitment to the agreement and our consequent obligations. The funding of teachers' Alberta Average Weekly Earnings increases has clearly been part of that commitment.

Albertans are well aware that our province is weathering the same global recession that all other jurisdictions in the world face, and though we are well positioned to do so — indeed, among the best prepared in the world — we must still take prudent and measured steps to ensure that Albertans and Alberta are protected from the full impact and are well positioned for recovery.

In response to the local needs of Edmonton's communities, these projects integrate education, health, policing and other community support services to help ensure that everyone has the opportunity to make a positive contribution and lead a dignified and meaningful life.

]]> http://www.davehancock.ca/2010/05/minister-hancocks-remarks-to-t-2.html http://www.davehancock.ca/2010/05/minister-hancocks-remarks-to-t-2.html Alberta Education budget Inspiring Education Setting the Direction teachers Wed, 26 May 2010 14:12:14 -0700 Recently, many people have been writing my office with concerns about the diploma exams that were written at the end of January 2010. I asked the department to thoroughly investigate each of the issues that were raised.

The diploma exam program in its present form is a significant milestone in students' formal education. These tests are designed to be exit exams that assess students' knowledge of the Alberta programs of study. Like the courses themselves, they expect a high standard of learning from students. They also ensure every student is assessed using a common standard across the province, and thus provide a highly reliable basis for admissions and scholarship decisions made by post-secondary institutions across the country.

Mr. Hancock: Well, it's a good question, Mr. Speaker. Locally elected school boards do have autonomy over their funds and get to direct them. They are restricted to 4 to 6 per cent on administrative funding, which is where advertising would come from. Spending on advertising comes out of that process, but it's within their budgetary discretion. It's a good question, though. All last fall we talked with school boards about whether the funds that we're using in the education system are helping us to achieve our outcomes and looking to say: can we cut back in areas where we're not achieving our outcomes? That being said, the school boards do get funded on a per capita basis, so they try to attract more students.

Mr. Hancock: Well, Mr. Speaker, rural transportation funding is actually quite complex, I've discovered. School jurisdictions receive part of their transportation funding based on a density grid as well as distance funding and special transportation funding. At the heart of it is the density rate and Northern Gateway's placement on the transportation density grid. The density rate is multiplied by the jurisdiction's total number of eligible weighted passengers and eligible transported ECS students to determine their funding. Based on the fact that Pembina Hills has fewer weighted eligible passen­gers, they occupy a different spot on the grid, a higher rate, even though their division covers nearly the same area as Northern Gateway.

Mr. Hancock: It would be quite inappropriate to do so, Mr. Speaker. We have a special-needs review process which has been under way for some time. It's been under way for some time because it's a very important area. We've had extensive consulta­tion. We're now working to do the collaborative processes between health, education, children's services, and then we'll work again with school boards and stakeholders and parents to design the implementation process. This is something that's particularly important, that every student be included in the education process, and it needs to be done right.

Mr. Hancock: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A very interesting question. Of course, many people have seen the TED broadcast by Sir Ken Robinson talking about systems of education driving creativity out of the process or out of the students. I'd like to think that in Alberta, as one of the leading-edge educational systems in the world and recognized as such around the world, we are not doing that, but that obviously speaks to what's happening in each and every one of our classrooms across the province. That's why we have an Inspiring Education process talking about what education needs to be for our students to be successful not only today but over the next 20, 30 years into the future.

Mr. Hancock: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The situation in Beaumont is indeed one that I've been paying very careful attention to. I've instructed the department to work with the school boards serving Beaumont to try and find some early solutions with respect to the growth that's happened in that particular area and to work with us to find resolutions for those students not just this fall but in the longer term.

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, I don't know where this hon. member has been, but we have not breached any contracts. We have not breached anything in faith with the school boards or the teachers in the province. In fact, we've totally honoured the contracts. What we haven't done this year is budgeted for a 3 per cent increase to the school boards' budgets, and I've done that in the context of talking with school boards about how we work on a longer term plan to deal with the pressures faced by school boards in meeting their negotiated obligations as well as looking at how we better utilize the resources within the system.

Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, with respect to the ASAP program, that's a process that takes a significant amount of time to put together. It is at its final stages, and announcements will be made soon. The school division that the hon. member has referred to has a school in that project. Their top priority school is going to be built at Langdon, as they asked.