Fresh off the recent election victory, Premier Danielle Smith and her UCP colleagues are probably already starting to map out some of their priorities for the next four years.
For the sake of Alberta students, parents, educators and the community-at-large, one of those priorities will hopefully be ensuring the province's world-class education system remains healthy and viable.
Whether the government and its stakeholder partners are prepared to make the effort needed to protect and promote top-rate education in Alberta schools over the next 48 months remains to be seen.
What is known is that any and all efforts aimed at putting students first will be welcomed and supported by Albertans in communities large and small.
Following the May 29 election, the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) called for the new UCP government to work closely with teachers and others to support public education now and down the road.
“A new mandate for government and a newly constituted legislature provide an opportunity to build the relationship between teachers and government and to work together on issues affecting public education,” said ATA president Jason Schilling.
“Teacher recruitment and retention issues will reach a crisis if not address very quickly (and) teachers continue to have fundamental concerns about the new curriculum which must be addressed," he added.
Representing 46,000 teachers in Alberta, the ATA is a significant player in the education system. As such, the provincial government would do well to take the organization’s comments and input into consideration going forward.
At the same time, the new provincial government must of course carefully weight the allocation of public resources in all its areas of responsibility, including in the multi-billion dollar health care sector.
Premier Smith and her UCP colleague have received a solid mandate from voters to set government priorities over the next four years. For everyone’s sake, and in particular for the future of young Albertans, the new government will hopefully put education near the top of that list.
Dan Singleton is an editor with the Albertan.
