While a welcome change to 2011′s cuts, Alberta’s budget delivered on Thursday is not earning top marks with stakeholders in education.

Among the highlights are operational budgets seeing a boost of 3.4 per cent, while per-student grants will increase by a percent this year and two per cent each over two more.

Dave Colburn, Edmonton Public School Board chair, said he gives the budget a B-minus.

“We are concerned there is no reference in the budget to the government’s position supporting full-day kindergarten and we have infrastructure needs not only in Edmonton Public, but it’s fair to say across the province … we see no solution to our infrastructure needs in this current budget,” he said.

Lauding spending in special needs, he said the EPSB will be “crunching numbers” to see how it will affect public schools.

Edmonton Catholic Schools board chair Debbie Engel was “pleased with the predictable budget.”

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” she said, adding ECS will also be running its numbers in the coming days.

While new money for class size and base instruction is welcome news, Engel said she was also disappointed in a lack of financial commitment to maintaining schools.

Alberta Teachers’ Association President Carol Henderson questioned if the slight increase in education spending is enough. “They’ve put schools in the same position – cutting staff or cutting programs,” Henderson said, adding it’s too early to tell numbers of positions that could be affected.