hot wasabi peas

Hi Cowtown people. As a few of you know I went to school here in Calgary along time ago. Balzac chaffeured me around yesterday and I found my old Jr High - Branton. It was an excellent school in my time: lots of fed funding because it was one of the few French Immersion schools ... now, it looks quite dumpy!

I know Judy has mentioned a decline in funding. And maybe the school is no longer a FI school but I'm just rather shocked! Hopefully, the peeling paint and overgrown weeds are not a reflection of what goes on inside.

I'm not really sure what I'm asking here because I know in my rational mind what has happened. I guess I just don't understand how it has been allowed to happen?

Steve_P

Good morning Luv,

I think the answer to your question lies in the government cutbacks of the early nineties and the lack of funding since.

In the early nineties the Alberta government took the right to tax away from local school boards, so all local education taxes now go to the Province. They claimed they could do a better job of distributing the monies more equitably.

Since then the boards in the major centers have been drastically underfunded, to the point that in Calgary alone the two boards Separate and Public now have a combined maintenance deficit of over $500 million dollars for all the schools in Calgary.

So basically you can blame Ralph Klein for the state of Calgary schools. Whether Mr Klein likes it or not this is part of his legacy.

Cheers
Steve

hot wasabi peas

Thanks Steve. Yeah, I figured something along those lines had occured but I just didn't know the details. Some 'Alberta Advantage'

Unfortunately I will always have the vision of him getting out of a YMCA pool with his swimming trunks half way down his ass as my own personal Ralph Klein legacy.