The news that the richest province in the country would be so petty and short-sighted as to demand a refund from their high schools is, frankly, unbelievable.

Billion dollar surpluses may have made our Premier fiscally irresponsible, but clearly they haven’t had much of an effect on the penny pinchers in the offices of Alberta Education. 

All across Alberta, high school principals are trying to reconcile their budgets anew, thanks to the recent announcement that the province will retract funding from Career and Technology Services modules that were completed without an appropriately recorded pre-requisite. It’s not as if the school divisions affected by this monetary recall haven’t got good reasons for the problem. In fact, one of the central issues here is that there are nearly as many reasons for the missing paperwork as there are schools struggling to make ends meet in the aftermath of the clawback.

From simple clerical error to attempts at efficiency by combining courses with similar curricula, Alberta’s high schools are being punished for their transgressions, and that’s just not right. 

The Fitzhugh doesn’t believe that the Alberta government should simply be willing to write off thousands, even millions of dollars without good documentation simply because the province happens to be flush right now. That would be a recipe for disaster. However, the solution to this problem should be arrived at without forcing schools into debt recovery mode.

There are some signs of intelligent life in the bureaucracy. After all, Alberta Education is not revoking the credits that schools taught students in 2004-2005. Instead, they are only asking for the money back, despite the fact that learning objectives were met, the modules taught and the money already spent. In some areas, this refund amounts to millions of dollars. Closer to home, the numbers are nowhere near as dramatic, with the GYRD as a whole on the hook for about $100,000 and Jasper Junior/Senior High set to be shorted by several thousand dollars.

That’s not the point, though. With clawbacks requested all over the province, this is clearly not a matter of a few irresponsible schools or divisions refusing to do the proper paperwork. Pre-requisites and the requirements surrounding them have changed, and schools are not being provided with an opportunity to get their processes in order before the collection agency starts calling. 

By forcing schools into debt, the province is essentially ensuring that programming will be cut back in the affected high schools. When only students end up paying the costs, it’s no working solution.