Alberta school fee review could pose problems for Calgary boards

School board officials and education advocates say some tough decisions may have to be made as the province works to rein in school fees.

After collecting data from 61 school districts, Alberta's education minister, David Eggen, found the fees are all over the map.

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In Calgary, education advocate Larry Leach says the discrepancy between boards has been obvious for years.

"Across the board, every fee has been less with the Catholic board than with the public board," he said.

Eggen has vowed to make school boards more accountable for the fees they charge, and he's not ruling out a cap.

Caps and cuts

That cap worries Brad Grundy, the chief financial officer with the Calgary Board of Education. He says a limit on fees without additional funding will mean cuts. 

"So is that the amount of time teachers can be assigned to other duties? Is it other services? Perhaps custodial services?"

He says one thing the government could do is clearly define what is included in basic education and fund that accordingly. 

"If they did that, that certainly relieves a lot of pressure from us to try and interpret that," he said.

Alternative programs

Leach says the CBE should have a public discussion about scaling back on things like alternative programs. 

"Those are the kinds of things that I think, in a tough economic time, that parents are willing to go: 'we can do without those bells and whistles, we need a basic education that everyone can afford,'" he said. 

Albertans won't find out what kind of funding, if any, the province will provide to help boards transition to lower fees until the spring budget.