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By JESSE ROBICHAUD
Canadaeast News Service

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MONCTON - Premier Shawn Graham indicated Monday that his government is working on a plan to back away from unpopular cuts to school support staff.

He suggested the Liberal government could draw money from the controversial $3.5-million Innovative Learning Fund to reverse some of the cuts, but he didn't go so far as to say the fund will be scrapped.

"We are looking now at reprioritizing some of that funding for the classroom activities," said Graham.

More than 300 support staff positions were cut in New Brunswick schools - including library assistants, teacher's aides and behaviour intervention staff - after former education minister Kelly Lamrock passed on a $2.9-million budget shortfall to school districts.

Lamrock ignored requests to scrap the fund in order to reinstate the positions.

Graham, who consulted with Education Minister Roland Hache over the weekend, said the government is ready to reinvest money from the fund into classrooms.

"What we are looking for is to reach a balance. We respect the principles of the Innovative Learning Fund, what it has attempted to achieve," he said.

"At the same time, can we continue to invest in the Innovation Learning Fund at the maximum level in these tough economic times?"

Parents protested the cuts out of concern that children will lose access to libraries and the one-on-one help of behaviour intervention staff and teaching assistants.

The government's decision to cut $2 million from the Department of Education's transportation budget has also triggered opposition.

Graham said there will be more than 3,000 fewer students in the education system next year, and suggested the number of support staff needed will be smaller than it was in previous years.

"Our government has hired over 430 new teachers' assistants over the past two years. We have reduced that now to 371 positions in the current economic crisis," said Graham.

"Some of that is attributed to declining enrolment numbers."

The president of the New Brunswick Teachers' Association, Brent Shaw, said his organization met with Hache on Friday and told him the fund should be cut completely.

"I can't see them proceeding with the position they have taken up to now," said Shaw.

"I think they are realizing that sometimes when you make a decision to take something away, you don't realize the whole impact until it has happened."

Shaw said the Innovative Learning Fund has created headaches for teachers by removing money from district budgets and forcing teachers to navigate a complicated application process to access money to fund classroom projects.

"Our position has been all along is that the ILF is a waste of the funds in a way, because all of that money came directly from education resources," said Shaw.

"If it had been new money we would have had no problems with it, but it wasn't new money."

Hache has frozen spending in his department since being named minister in a recent cabinet shuffle.

While unions and parents have called on Hache to reverse the $2.9 million in cuts with money from the $3.5-million Innovative Learning Fund, his staff has said the freeze was put in place while reviewing spending as a matter of due diligence.

Shaw, however, said it's crucial that the government honours funding that has already been promised to teachers.

"Let's say you received a $20,000 grant, and you already spent $10,000, and if you can't get the rest of your project funding, there is a real good chance that $10,000 has been thrown the window," he said.

Shaw said government can find the money to pay for the $2.9 million the cuts would have saved while still honouring the promises made to teachers who have applied successfully for funding.

Progressive Conservative Leader David Alward said the Liberals have allowed uncertainty to go on too long in the education system.

"They have to make a decision quickly so the district can rehire staff that has been laid off because the crisis is at the local level," he said.

Alward said the Liberal government doesn't need to pick between the fund and support staff.

"The decisions should have never been made to cut millions out of education," said Alward.

"We shouldn't even be talking about do we choose between classroom support or innovative learning. We should be talking about cuts outside the education system altogether."