Did Anybody Else See This Turd Coming?

I did. Way back in the 90s when King Ralph took away school boards' right to levy and collect property taxes.

It's taken a while, but sure enough the CBE takes some $10 million in deficit, and some 200 teachers are expected to lose their jobs as a result.

The problem? The provincial government has deliberately hamstrung regional school boards. First of all, the school boards are all funded by the provincial government, and they have no say in the amount of funding that Edmonton hands over.

It's pretty obvious to any thinking person that running the CBE is going to be a little more expensive than running the schools in the Crowsnest pass - at a minimum it costs more to live in Calgary than it does to live in Blairmore, therefore people demand higher salaries.

The second problem is that the province signed an agreement with Alberta's teachers - but it leaves the funding of those agreements in the hands of the school districts. So, on one hand, the government has placed a chokehold on the public school boards by committing them to employment terms and then tightens its grip by refusing to fund the school boards to meet their obligations - obligations which the province signed up to in the first place by signing those agreements.

That isn't just irresponsible governance, it's deliberate malice intended to undermine the public education system so that the privatization program that started with the introduction of so-called "Charter Schools" can be furthered.