The Alberta government's effort to save parents money on school is turning into a bit of a mess. Due to abysmal planning on the part of the province, Rocky View Schools (RVS) has had to increase its bus fees for parents who live within 2.
The Alberta government's effort to save parents money on school is turning into a bit of a mess.
Due to abysmal planning on the part of the province, Rocky View Schools (RVS) has had to increase its bus fees for parents who live within 2.4 km of their child's designated school by 47 per cent. RVS is not alone. Other school divisions are in the same boat.
While the division says fees would have gone up anyway due to the transportation budget being severely underfunded, exempting a large portion of users from paying bus fees exacerbated the problem.
For families still paying the fees because they live within that 2.4 km radius and have two children - which is typical - the cost for transportation in RVS is $220 more this coming school year.
While Alberta has always subsidized busing for students outside the 2.4 km range, this new legislation highlights the discrepancy and it is a pretty hard pill to swallow for those parents who are paying extra for other people's children to take the bus.
From a government perspective, it might seem logical students living closer to school should not have subsidized transportation, since they are technically close enough to walk.
Unfortunately, government logic has always been disconnected from reality.
Not all students are mobile enough to walk to school. Working parents are likely not going to let very young children walk an hour to school - the average time it takes to walk 2.3 km - especially if they have to cross a highway. Lastly, this is Alberta. Winter months have days of extreme cold and walking a long distance to school would not be acceptable.
With that in mind, unless a child's walk to school is a few minutes, they likely need to take the bus.
While the intent of Bill 1 was noble, those who point to it as nothing more than a vote grab might be right considering how poorly thought out it was.
The new legislation is now taking on a bit of an air of discrimination as well because it is punishing parents who live closer to school and rewarding those living farther out. In many cases, those outlying families are also more affluent - another blow to the NDP's attempt to build a reputation of helping the middle class.
Stories are coming in from across the province about how the combination of the eliminated fees and the carbon tax is destroying school transportation budgets. Not only has RVS had to increase its fees for students taking the bus within the range not covered by Bill 1, it has had to also cut into its reserves.
What happens when those reserves run out? Obviously fees will again go up.
Banff-Cochrane MLA Cam Westhead says the education minister will be working with school boards that had to increase fees because paying more is contrary to the intent of Bill 1.
That is fine and well, but where will the extra money come from? The province is already strapped for cash and working with a deficit. When Bill 1 was announced, the province said its funding would come from finding efficiencies.
Hopefully any additional funding can be found the same way, otherwise the only options will be cutting into services or increasing taxes.
Reducing fees in one area just to increase costs in another, is not good governance. It is smoke and mirrors with the hope that the audience is too stupid to see the card up the sleeve.
