School council members are saying a war of words reminiscent of school yard bickering is not what they want from Premier Dennis Fentie.

What they're seeking, said the Whitehorse Elementary School Council's secretary, is an explanation of why funding has been allocated disproportionately to the Department of Education.

Nils Clarke told the Star this morning he understands governments can spend tax dollars as they see fit, but said parents from nine school councils want answers to back up such spending.

In a letter circulated by the Whitehorse Elementary School Council to other area parents' councils, chair Keith Halliday says the Yukon Party government has not been spending as much on education as it could have.

"Yukon government spending has increased 9.4 per cent per year since 2004-2005," reads a letter signed by Clarke and Halliday written to Education Minister Patrick Rouble.

"Your budgets since 2004 have increased public schools branch funding by only 4.9 per cent per year, not much faster than inflation and the staff pay increases."

Halliday and Clarke have said this funding gap needs to be explained and accounted for.

"We understand you can never divide funds equally, it's a political decision," said Clarke. "But they have to articulate why they made that decision."

Reacting to the letter, Premier Fentie said Wednesday the school council has its facts wrong.

Clarke said the funding decision is fine, as long as Fentie takes the time to thoroughly answer questions from volunteer parent councils.

"Don't just say, ‘you're wrong, I'm right,' " said Clarke, the father of two children in Grades 2 and 5. ‘It's irresponsible and disrespectful."

Clarke, a Whitehorse lawyer, said Fentie is getting into a bad habit of telling people they are wrong, and walking away from the discussion.

"The whole thing with Sheila Fraser, telling her she's wrong, it is not the responsible or respectful way to act as the premier," he said.

Clarke was referring to recent findings by federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser that the Fentie government had made a mistake in investing $36.5 million in asset-backed paper trusts last year. Following the ruling, Fentie had quipped, "That's her opinion."

Further to admonishing the parent council for getting its facts wrong, Fentie accused Halliday of launching a politically-motivated attack.

Halliday was a senior advisor to former Yukon Liberal government premier Pat Duncan.

"It's ridiculous to suggest it's political," said Halliday. "It's motivated by the budget; we know it's coming and we want them to fix funding."

Clarke said the funding gap has seen numerous startling trends emerge within the territory's education system, including graduation rates 18 per cent lower than the national average, high absenteeism rates, and low achievement test average scores.

Clarke said he had not read through the Education department's recently-unveiled Education Reform Project Report, but said he hoped the funding to implement its measures would be included in this spring budget, to be tabled in the legislature.

In addition to a public explanation of spending by either Fentie or Rouble, the Whitehorse Elementary School Council requests that the ministers "restore public schools to the priority it deserves in the next budget and give it an operating and capital funding budget equivalent to where it would have been had it not been de-prioritized since 2004."

Rouble told the Star today he does not agree with the premise of the school council's arguments.

"In fact, spending has increased the last few years," he said. "And that was done in a time of decline in student populations."

Rouble said he was working on a responding letter to the Whitehorse Elementary School Council this morning, which would outline the ways in which education spending has helped transform and improve programs.

While Rouble said he was not prepared to leak elements of the government's forthcoming budget, he would say, "the government has made education a priority."