EDUCATION

Leadership in Public and Advanced Education

An Alberta Liberal government will properly fund public education. We will take steps to improve our post-secondary institutions while at the same time making them more accessible.

Post-secondary education

• Create a Post-Secondary Endowment Fund, using a portion of oil and gas royalties. In just 15 years, the endowment could grow to $15 billion and generate $770 million in extra funding every year.
• Create a $500 million Endowment for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, using a portion of oil and gas royalties.
• Restore legislature control over tuition increases.
• Create targeted additional learning spaces for areas with a high number of applicants.
• Reduce interest rates on Alberta student loans, and increase the part-time earning limits.
• Provide three-year funding envelopes for post-secondary institutions so they may better plan for the future.
• Expand the Alberta Opportunities Bursary by doubling the funding and expanding eligibility.
• Recognize regional disparities in allocating student loans.
• Reduce or eliminate property taxes for on-campus student housing to make accommodation more affordable and to encourage the building of more spaces.
• Establish teaching chairs to support and recognize excellence at post-secondary institutions.
• Establish Mount Royal University in Calgary.

K–12 education

• Support the Learning Commission's recommendations for class sizes.
• Eliminate school fees and parent fundraising for essentials.
• Review the utilization formula for all schools, rural and urban, and, in the meantime, enact a three-year moratorium on school closures.
• Phase in new junior kindergarten programs (starting with at-risk children) and establish full-day kindergarten as recommended by the Alberta Commission on Learning.
• Reinforce the status of arts, second languages and physical education as essential complements to the core curriculum.
• Identify learning problems in or by the end of Grade 1.
• Move toward a more diagnostic model for Grade 3 provincial tests to ensure student success.
• Enable a "community schools" program, under which community supports such as health care, child care, after-school care and social services can be integrated under one roof.
• Fund additional supports for special-needs students, gifted students and students whose first language is not English.
• Introduce a school nutrition program to ensure at-risk children a healthy start at school every day.
• Maintain the current number of elected rural school boards, to keep the control of rural education in local hands.
• Recognize and address the transportation pressures facing rural school boards.
• Develop a career education program for junior and senior high school students with an emphasis on apprenticeship training.

Aboriginal education

• Take aggressive measures—including mentorship programs, apprenticeship programs and specialized curriculum initiatives—to boost high school completion rates among Aboriginal students until they are on par with the rest of Alberta’s students.
• Require annual progress reports on First Nations, Métis and Inuit Policy Framework Initiatives from Alberta Education.

Click here to download the Alberta Liberal Action Plan for Education in .pdf format.