CBE spending needs provincial review, parent group says

The Calgary Board of Education has to be more accountable and transparent when it comes to spending,according to a parents advocacy group.

"When anybody is not transparent, they don't present the facts, you naturally question, 'Is it real?Is it justified," saidDavid Jones, one of dozens of parents who gathered at the Calgary Arts Academy Monday nightfor the Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils'first meeting of the year.

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Budgeting issues at the CBE have beencontentious this year, asparents pushed back againsthigher school feesand complained to the education ministerover the increased distances that many children have to walk to catch their school buses.

"You really can't talk about school fees and council fundraising without looking at how much money reaches the front lines,"saidLisa Davis, president ofCAPSC.

Last year,48 per cent of the funds that the CBE received for growth actually reached the classroom, she says.

The CBE does notdispute that a significant amount of the funds 22 per cent do not go towardschool budgets, Davis says.

She hasraised the issue of the school board'sbudgeting and transparency with Alberta Education and has asked the education ministerfor a third-party review of the CBE's use of funds.

"One of the things we've asked for is full and transparent disclosure about where this bus money is going because we do know they had a 2.7 per cent increase in funding and a 2 per cent increase in enrolment growth, so the numbers just don't add up," shesaid.

Davis says it's urgent to deal with the budget given the increasingly difficult economic circumstances faced in Alberta.

"I assure you there's not going to be an increase in school funding. And the pattern for the CBE has been to, if you look three years ago, they cut the high school funding. If you look in the spring, when they weren't going to get the increase in funding, their response was to cut school cleaning. So the concern is as time goes on, if we don't start getting the accountability that we need, next year's budget is going to be worse," she said.

"And that was the issue we brought up with the minister."

For parentslike Jones, the CBE's budgeting has to be transparent.

"Is it justified, and considering we're all suffering in other areas, we want to make sure, or we want that money back," hesaid.