The Alberta Government is allocating more funding for schools to address increasing enrollment.
In a press release Tuesday, the province said they will make an additional $30 million available to school authorities experiencing higher-than-expected enrolment growth.
School authorities will receive $1,500 per student for actual enrolment growth between zero and 100 students and growth exceeding 100 students will be funded at $2,000 per student.
“Alberta continues to attract people from across Canada and around the world. We’ve seen many newcomers to Alberta in recent months, meaning more kids registering in our schools,” said Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides.
“We know schools are facing enrolment pressures, so we are providing school authorities with more funding to better support schools and students. This funding supplements the historic education investment made in Budget 2023.”
According to the release, funding will be allocated to school authorities in December through the supplemental enrolment growth grant. For the current school year, the supplemental enrolment growth grant has been modified so that all school authorities experiencing growth will now receive additional per student funding.
For the 2023-24 school year, authorities will be allocated funding based on the previous school year or the revised formula, whichever one provides more funding.
“Many of Alberta’s locally elected public, Catholic and francophone school boards continue to experience significant enrolment growth and with it, increasing complexity in a student population requiring supports for mental health, learning and early intervention, and English as an additional language,” said Marilyn Dennis, president of the Alberta School Boards Association.
Both the Red Deer Public and Red Deer Catholic Regional school districts saw an increase in enrolment for the 2023-24 school year. Red Deer Public was up 2.4 per cent to 11,424 students, 270 more than last year. Red Deer Catholic saw a three per cent increase and as of October, had 10,723 students enrolled, up 325 from last year.
Chinook’s Edge School Division was up 0.4 per cent to 11,101 students in October. Wolf Creek Public Schools enrolment was up 1.7 per cent to 7,358 and Clearview Public Schools was down 1.1 per cent to 2,347.
Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said in a statement Tuesday that while funding for students will help and is welcomed, it doesn’t address the larger problem.
“By adding students without funding school boards to hire enough teachers and other support staff, it is guaranteed that class sizes and classroom conditions will just continue to worsen,” Schilling said, adding that estimates show that enrolment across the province will be up by 20,000 students over last year.
“While any injection of funding to schools is appreciated, today’s announcement falls well short of what’s required to improve conditions in schools. In fact, this announcement does not even stop the situation from getting worse.”