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As principals look to reduce costs next fall, parents are being asked where they would prefer to see cuts, from teaching specialists or educational assistants, to supports for special-needs students.

Families are being sent surveys, letters and emails in some schools, while others are being asked to attend parent council meetings to sit down with principals and decide how best to deal with an expected $40-million funding gap across the Calgary Board of Education.

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But parents from the Marion Carson Elementary School, which offers English and Mandarin bilingual programs, say they shouldn’t be the ones deciding how to prioritize school resources.

“Sending a survey like this out to a general population, there will be a lot of bias in the answers, which will depend on what your own child’s needs are,” said one parent at the northwest school who did not want to be identified.

“It shouldn’t be the responsibility of parents to decide these things. An oil and gas company wouldn’t go to its stakeholders to ask how they should do their budget.”

Photo by Jim Wells/Postmedia

Barb Silva, spokeswoman for Support Our Students advocacy group, said she has heard from several parents who have received surveys, letters and invitations to school council meetings to discuss ways to reduce school costs.

“This is a system-wide problem,” said Silva.

“But why should anyone have to choose between having a music specialist or a phys-ed specialist? These kids are young, they need both of those things.”

Support Our Students posted the Marion Carson School survey on its Facebook page, which asks parents to rank their priorities for next year among choices including: language, music or phys-ed specialists, resource teachers, supports for special-needs students or supports for smaller groups that break away from larger classes for 45 minutes daily.