How can more money for books be more bad news for the Campbell government? The first day of school announcement by Education Minister Tom Christensen demonstrates more broken promises by the Campbell government, requires more cuts and commits money to Alberta. The infamous New Era Document promised to "Give school boards multi-year funding envelopes, to improve long-term education planning and budgeting." What has actually happened is that the Campbell government froze funding for education and then claimed credit as it threw a few crumbs back to the school boards.

September 7, 2004, is the fourth September opening for K-12 students since the Campbell government came to power. That makes it possible to go back through four years of news releases and examine the pattern. On February 1, 2002, the Ministry of Education announced that it would "make a total of $3.79 billion available to school districts for the 2002-03 school year." It described the freeze for future years by saying "this amount will remain stable for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years." Those numbers were verified by Christensen in his January 30, 2004, information bulletin which listed operating funding for the K-12 public system as $3.77 billion for 2001-02, $3.79 billion for 2002-03, $3.79 billion for 2003-04, and $3.875 billion for 2004-05. School boards were required to pay for the 7% salary increase imposed by legislation, the annual increased MSP costs of $18.3 million (which required all but $2 million of the 2002-03 increase), as well as $35 million of this year's increase for a government imposed change in accounting systems. In other words, apart from MSP and accounting system requirements, funding increased by 1.4% over three years; that is not 1.4% per year but 1.4% over the entire three year period.

Despite its promise of reliable three year funding for school boards, the Campbell government has followed a pattern of making relatively small one time only funding announcements months after the original operating grants are announced. On March 28, 2002, a one-time grant of $42.8 million for public schools was announced, 1.1% of that year's operating grants. On November 27, 2003, it announced the allocation of a further $24.6 million for that school year, but that was not an addition to the total funding, just a correction in the allocation for the difference between actual enrollment and the figures originally used. The $24.6 million was held back until the September enrollment was known. Problems with accurate figures on enrollment plagues the Ministry of Education's announcements. As part of it news cycle, the Ministry routinely puts out news releases about declining enrollment and consequently increased funding per student even though the budget is virtually frozen. The enrollment numbers used in those announcements routinely exaggerate the decline compared to the official count at the end of September. Those figures show that over the two years ending September 30, 2003, the number of full time equivalent students decreased by 1.97% (11,555) while the number of full time equivalent educators (teachers and principals) decreased by 7.19% (2,585).

This year's book funding announcement will be welcomed by hard pressed school boards, but because of its conditions, it imposes further cuts elsewhere in the pared to the bone system. The announcement said allocation of the $10 million will be "based on student enrollment, and school districts will be required to match the funding." In other words, school districts must readjust their budgets and find another $10 million to cut if they want to take advantage of the government's offer. That breaks yet another New Era promise to "Give local school boards more autonomy and control over the delivery of education services, subject to provincial curriculum and testing standards." Maybe they meant more autonomy to increase class sizes but not to choose how to spend their book budget. The news release on the book announcement said that the money is going to Alberta where the Alberta Learning Resources Centre "will hold the Province's contribution in credit accounts that districts can access when they are ready to make a purchase." Oh well, at least they didn't send the money to a German textbook company located next to the shipyard that will get other BC largess.