An Okotoks mother of an autistic boy is concerned her elementary school aged son will not have his right to education due to the latest cuts to funding to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
“By cutting this, you are cutting my child's right to an education,” said Michelle Slomp. “All children are getting an education right now – why can’t my child be educated? Every child is, why can’t mine? (Is it) just because he has a special need?”
The provincial government announced it would transfer approximately $125 million from education to battle COVID-19 on March 28.
Kindergarten to Grade 12 students have been taught at home since schools were shut down to students March 15 due to concerns of COVID-19.
As a result, there were funds available from education for COVID-19. Transportation, substitute teachers and education assistants will be temporarily reduced while traditional classroom study is cancelled, said a provincial government press release on March 28.
The cuts to education assistants would begin May 1, however Foothills School Division is delaying temporary layoffs to May 15.
Foothills School Division superintendent of schools, Chris Fuzessy, said all staff have put in tremendous effort since schools have shut down.
The division is having to trim some $1.66-million from its approximately $97-million budget for the 2019-20 school year.
“Through these anticipated savings, while still difficult, we are thankful that we are now able to delay temporary layoffs until May 15, 2020," Fuzessy said in a prepared statement. "This will allow staff teams additional time to develop transition plans while offering students and families ongoing support on continuity of learning.”
The cuts across the province will be temporary said Education Minister Adriana LaGrange.
“I want to stress that this is a temporary arrangement as schools focus on at-home learning,” LaGrange said in the prepared statement. “I have full confidence the system will continue to be equipped to successfully deliver our education continuity plan.”
Slomp said her son Sam has been in steady contact with his education assistant at Dr. Morris Gibson School since home schooling began.
"Sam has not been transitioning as well to home learning," she said. "His aide has been very involved in getting it so his school could be done at home… He hears her voice and he’s excited to hear her voice.”
Slomp said the aide's involvement is critical to the home-learning process.
“She is really just encouraging me as a mom,” Slomp said.
“Giving me ideas on how to make things effective for him so he is engaged during teaching at home.”
The Slomps have sent emails to LaGrange, Premier Jason Kenney and Highwood MLA RJ Sigurdson to voice their concerns.
Sigurdson said the situation is far from the norm.
“The reality is, the no. 1 priority has to be focused on the safety of Albertans,” Sigurdson said. “That means we have to do everything that we can to direct funding to support our response to Alberta’s COVID-19 crisis… to get as much funding towards our health career services and front-line workers.”
He said a portion of the education funding, approximately $8.3 billion for the 2020 provincial budget, was being held back to reflect the cancellation of in-class schooling.
He stressed the funds will deal with the current health crisis.
“We are completely committed to the continuity of student learning,” Sigurdson said. “This is a temporary adjustment. As soon as classes reconvene, this would automatically be switched back. It is just a temporary measure for the last few months of the school year.”
He said school boards will decide how to administer the cuts.
“Just because we made this decision, doesn’t mean your child or student is going to lose their EA,” Sigurdson said. “We are leaving those decisions to the individual school boards.”
Scott Morrison, Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools superintendent, said there was little wiggle room as education assistants were clearly labelled as a place to cut.
“The bottom line is if you look at the reduction funding, that (education assistants) is the only employee group large enough that would have got us there,” Morrison said. “It really was a foregone conclusion.”
He said the education assistants are an important part of the CTR Catholic learning team.
The division had to cut $1.473-million from its approximately $100-million 2019-20 budget as a result of the weekend announcement.
He said it was able to keep the assistants on health benefits.
Slomp said it would be difficult to proceed for the remainder of the school year without an aide – and it would put added pressure on the classroom teacher in dealing with other students.
She said she trusts the government when it states things will be close to normal in the fall.
“I am concerned Sam will fall behind so he won’t be prepared for September,” Slomp said. “If we don’t do the work now on a daily basis, everything we have done until now will be for nought. And he will be a year behind in September.”
Any staff impacted by these funding adjustments will qualify for the federal government’s enhanced employment insurance program and other support programs for Canadian workers.
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