The price of crude oil is way down, the price of fuel at the pump is somewhat down, but some St. Albert parents could soon be shelling out as much as $90 more for each child they put on the school bus next fall. In anticipation of a 1.39 per cent cut to provincial school transportation grants next year, St. Albert Public Schools has approved a new fee schedule for bus riders that promises to touch more than 3,000 students from kindergarten to Grade 12.
The size of the increase is dependent on how far a student lives from the school and if families take advantage of lower rates by signing up before June 1. After that deadline has passed, for those living more than 2.4 kilometres from the school, each seat on the bus will cost an extra $70 next year and bring the total cost to $190. Those living within that distance will pay $90 extra bringing their total to $340 or $350 depending on the distance to the school.
As one parent told the Gazette last week, those increases will surely put a financial squeeze on many families if they have three or four kids. If the cost is more than they feel they can bear, many will simply decide to drive their kids to school. It would be easy to say more kids should walk, but realistically that won’t likely occur in great numbers in today’s world of open boundaries and all kinds of special programs at different schools. Walking and biking to school can be a wonderfully healthy and social activity, but to see it increase substantially, may be wishful thinking.
At any rate, the last thing most parents want is for boards to cut back on teaching resources to pay for buses. The public board expects to see as many as 322 new students enrol in its schools next fall, but it won’t receive an extra nickel from the province, which bases funding on per student enrolment. That means the board will not get the extra money for more teachers, and class sizes will likely grow. That number of students may not seem like much spread over hundreds of classrooms, but it is enough to fill many elementary schools. The public board alone expects a shortfall of $800,000 next year, although it has surplus money to help cover extra costs for the next year. On top of that, the province expects boards to cut back on badly needed support staff, we can only assume that includes library staff, teaching assistants for special needs students and so on. Remember, boards stopped levying their own taxes many years ago, leaving increases in educational funding to the province.
Before voters go to the polls on May 5, they must consider the three options to deal with the revenue shortfalls that led to the decision to cut funding: Increase taxes, cut spending, or, increase borrowing (and ask future taxpayers to pay the tab for current services). Voters need to be mindful of this fact and question the politicians seeking their votes about how they would finance an increase in education funding. If they're planning to raise taxes, be specific about who will pay. If they're planning cuts somewhere else, be specific about where and how much. If they're planning to borrow, be specific about the amounts and the plan to repay the debt.
