A reduction of school fees is A+ news for Bow Valley parents, but a local division is still doing its homework on what exactly a recent provincial announcement means.
On March 2, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley introduced plans for Bill 1, an act to reduce school fees, which, if passed, would reduce fees up to 25 per cent by eliminating instructional supply and material fees at Alberta public schools starting at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.
Notley added busing fees for children travelling to their designated public school would also be getting the axe.
“School fees should not be a barrier to kids getting a start in life no matter what their circumstances,” said Notley. “Starting this fall, no Alberta family will be required to pay for textbooks, work books, printing, and paper costs incurred by their school and should the bill pass, they also won’t have to pay for the mistakes of previous governments by having to pay for busing their students to a school because the one in their community was full or never built.
“We believe Alberta families will save more than $50 million this year alone.”
The fees vary from divisions across the province and Notley said the goal is to reduce fees even more in the future.
This comes as very positive news from the Canadian Rockies Public Schools’ (CRPS) perspective, as it will help alleviate financial stress on Bow Valley families.
CRPS, though, hasn’t gotten caught up in Notley’s announcement, and in its wake some questions have been raised within the rural mountain town school division.
“On March 9, our secretary-treasurer, Dave (Mackenzie), is having a conference call with the province to get more clarity on what this announcement actually means for CRPS,” said Superintendent Chris MacPhee.
“Personally, I’d love to see instructional pieces wiped out completely; whether that occurs or not will be in the meeting’s details … and how we’ll get reimbursed for (the reductions).”
MacPhee added that school fees isn’t the top issue his rural division faces, though, but rather the long-protested funding formula that puts small rural school divisions, such as CRPS, at a disadvantage.
“The biggest challenge is the funding formula not fitting the schools’ rural system and it creates challenges in other areas,” MacPhee said.
Schools are funded on a per student basis from students in kindergarten to Grade 9. Grades 10 through 12 are funded on the number of high school credits they take.
Since about the year 2000, CRPS has seen enrolment decline, although the division has seen some enrolment stability over the past few years.
