Alberta Government Turns Hard to the Right
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- Published on Sunday, 12 April 2020 23:24
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2053 ... April 13, 2020
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Alberta Government Turns Hard to the Right
David DePoe
The Alberta United Conservative Party (UCP) Premier and his Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange have announced they are redirecting $128-million of K-12 education funding to the province’s COVID-19 response, following their decision to close schools on March 15th. Ms. LaGrange said "COVID-19 has changed both how we provide student learning, and the operational needs of the education system."
The result will be the layoff of 25,000 education workers across the province, 16,000 of them educational assistants. The Minister’s press secretary said "[a]ny staff who are affected by this temporary funding adjustment are encouraged to apply for the federal government’s enhanced employment insurance program, as well as other support programs for Canadian workers." Most of these workers, including office employees, were engaged in preparing online education resources for students. Principals and office workers were reaching out to families to assess the level of technology that families have available. In particular, the educational assistants were working hard preparing learning packages for students with special needs, many of... which were going to be delivered to homes of students without access to technology.
