Education spending leads to big social payoff

Kenney's ideological approach will exact huge costs, Ray Martin writes.

It should be clear to the

UCP government and their followers that a properly funded public education system is crucial for economic growth. But what is less known or acknowledged is that good public education is the best venue to foster the development of social skills for vulnerable children in our society.

My times as a teacher, guidance counsellor and school trustee brought home this message in the strongest possible way to me. As an Edmonton Public School Board Trustee in Ward D, I could clearly see how teachers and teacher aides worked extremely hard to help the many students that came from diverse backgrounds, to understand, learn, and participate in our community.

The latest figures from the Edmonton Public School District show that of 103,000 students, 8,766 are FNMI (First Nations, Metis, and Inuit) students. Also, 25,091 are ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Those numbers are roughly 33 per cent of the total school population. This makes up one-third of the total student population in Edmonton Public Schools.

In addition to this group of students, students from lower-income families will also need extra help. It should be clear from both an economic and social aspect that a properly funded public education is an absolute necessity in providing the required help these students will need, especially at a young age.

A recent report by the Conference Board of Canada, prepaid for by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, showed clearly the importance of public education, not only for the economy but also in developing crucial social skills in all of our young people.

Key findings from the report showed public education can generate social benefits such as a healthier population, a higher standard of living and a reduction in crime. That lessens their demand on and eventual reliance on social assistance, public health care and criminal justice services. Each dollar of public education generates a $1.30 in economic benefits. The inverse also holds true.

Also in the report, they found that a permanent 10-per-cent increase in public educational funding had the largest effect for lower-income students. These students were associated with a 0.5-per-cent increase in educational attainment and a 10-per-cent higher school graduation rate when spending was increased. Higher-income students, on the other hand, were associated with a 0.1-percent increase in educational attainment and a 2.5-percent increase in high school graduation.

The Conference Board of Canada study will not surprise most people who know how important public education is for our students. I cannot think of anything more crucial and essential for the future prosperity of the province of Alberta.

Studies like this should be a wake-up call to the Kenney government. However, their political ideology gets in the way and they move in the opposite direction, as demonstrated in the recent budget, where there will be no new funding for our public education with an expected increase of 20,000 new K-12 students.

They also fail to even recognize the importance of educational workers such as teachers and teacher aides and the valuable work they do both for our economy and social infrastructure.

Kenney finally got around to providing vaccinations for educational personnel long after they should have been recognized as frontline workers during this COVID -19 pandemic. What a slap in the face for our educators when they play such a prominent role in our society.

Kenney's outdated ideology clearly does not work for a majority of Albertans. Instead of setting up pre-appointed committees to cater to ideology, it should be evident that the people he needs to work with are the people involved in public education who know what is needed to improve our public education system.

If Kenney wants the Alberta economy and social infrastructure to prosper, there needs to be a drastic change in his ideological approach. Ray Martin was the leader of the Alberta NDP and the leader of the Opposition in the Alberta legislature from 1984-93. He served four terms as an Alberta MLA and two terms as an Edmonton public school board trustee.