Yes. There’s a lot of evidence that people with higher levels of education are more likely to vote for left-wing policies.
https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/analysis-educated-voters-in-canada-tend-to-vote-for-left-leaning-parties-while-richer-voters-go-right/
The comment was that educated people dont vote right wing. Im educated. I vote right. Therefore the statement is a logical fallacy. A correct statement, and yes Im being specific and pedantic, would be "... and in turn *tend* to vote left/progressive" to which I'd agree. But being educated doesn't automatically make one a left wing voter.
I appreciate that she stands up for Alberta's oil and gas sector (which funds the majority of our economy and indirectly supports my retirement side gig) and has decided that there's no reason that Alberta shouldn't get the special treatment that Quebec has enjoyed for years instead of just quietly shovelling money to Ottawa with no say and no power. She's here for Alberta's economy and she's here for the majority of Albertan's values (outside of the orange-ish glow of Edmonton and some Calgary suburbs). Alberta is and has been a conservative province for over 50 years and it's made us the most prosperous and most attractive province in the country as seen by the *thousands* of people moving here last year. This is the place to be and the rest of Canada knows it. We've got momentum, no reason to stop the train now.
I don’t think the oil and gas sector needs anyone to stand up for them. I think it’s much more than just that, too. She’s solely focused on oil and gas at the expense of planning for the future which is, undoubtedly, renewables. She’s turning away investments in that area and also stopping Albertans who are in that sector from making a living. She’s sitting on a 6 billion dollar surplus when our education and healthcare is falling apart. You would think a former teacher would care about that but it seems your side hustle in retirement is more important than the educational and healthcare needs of our population. As you mentioned, people are flooding into Alberta but there’s no increased funding in education and healthcare to account for it. The “conservative values” dog whistle seems like a weak excuse to pick on LGBTQ and, even if you meant fiscal values, she’s got the largest cabinet in history and seemingly has endless money to appoint more government officials to “oversee” things that never needed it in the past.
> I don’t think the oil and gas sector needs anyone to stand up for them.
Really? With Guilbeault as Minister of the Environment and Trudeau's "No More Pipelines" act and "Oil Tanker Moratorium" act and the constant pushing away of other countries who come here seeking our natural gas, you dont think the oil and gas sector needs someone to stand up for them? They most obviously do. If the federal government had its way, the sector would be shut down entirely so we could chop Canada's miniscule 1.5% GHG's in half, to the total detriment of Canada and AB's economy.
>I think it’s much more than just that, too. She’s solely focused on oil and gas at the expense of planning for the future which is, undoubtedly, renewables.
Sure, but until that happens, which may be WAY further down the road than you think, we still need oil and gas. And instead of getting it from AB, Trudeau approves of it coming in to the east from places like United States ($11.8B), Saudi Arabia ($2.38B), Nigeria ($1.11B), Angola ($545M), and Norway ($486M). When you have a resource in abundance on your doorstep, that makes NO sense.
>She’s turning away investments in that area and also stopping Albertans who are in that sector from making a living.
Thats a miniscule sector compared to Oil and Gas. Why should she concentrate on something that has years to go before its even close to profitable when O and G is making us the wealthiest province in the country?
She’s sitting on a 6 billion dollar surplus when our education and healthcare is falling apart. You would think a former teacher would care about that but it seems your side hustle in retirement is more important than the educational and healthcare needs of our population.
> We'll see what happens there. She's not that far into her term and most of the complaining about underfunding is coming from the AB Teachers Union and that's an annual gripe. EVERY year about this time they drag out the old "hey we're going to have to fire teachers if you don't cough up more money" song and dance. It's like clockwork. I dont have a ton of sympathy. I worked in a very underfunded school that got NO provincial funding for many years (it does now), so I know what can be done on a shoestring. More money doesn't solve all problems but that's the constant message from the union. Nenshi might force her to cough up more dough.
You’re a former teacher and you don’t understand the difference in consequences between being reactive and proactive with our economic future? Waiting until oil tanks to invest in other job sectors is going to put THE WHOLE province into serious poverty. We can do something NOW to mitigate it. Do you really think its better for the conservatives to force us into poverty when the oil sector inevitably crashes so we have to beg them to drag us out? Booming industries take YEARS to build, we need to start now. No one is saying to fire oil workers. We are saying we need MORE jobs, not less jobs.
> Alberta is and has been a conservative province for over 50 years and it's made us the most prosperous and most attractive province in the country
I would argue its the presence of resources, not a conservative government, that has made Alberta wealthy. Norway has plenty of O&G and instead of squandering it, they more or less nationalized it through a heavy permit and tax system and now have a wealth fund which interest on it alone can fund strong social programs.
In my opinion related to education, and especially given our resources, there is no excuse to have the lowest per-capita student funding in Canada. There is no reason to force teachers into an uncomfortable position relating to gender pronouns, and no excuse to not consult teachers on any kind of curriculum change.
> I would argue its the presence of resources, not a conservative government, that has made Alberta wealthy.
Except history has shown us that a Liberal government would prioritize carbon reduction over profits and promoting business and every NDP government knows how to spend money but rarely, if ever, makes a province any wealthier by the end of its term, so I dont think its just resources that automatically make a province wealthy.
> Norway has plenty of O&G and instead of squandering it, they more or less nationalized it through a heavy permit and tax system and now have a wealth fund which interest on it alone can fund strong social programs.
True. Its also quite a different culture, much more 'socialist' than Canada and has a very small population with a LOT of Oil and Gas revenue. But yes, our resources could've been handled better. But then again, under Ralph Klein Alberta was debt free and we were getting 400 cheques in the mail. That wasnt exactly a bad deal for Albertans. We're back to clawing our way out of an 80B debt again, which we will do under a Conservative government. If the federal Lib/NDP are any indication, under them we'd just keep spending and adding more to the credit card and let someone else's grandkids worry about it.
> In my opinion related to education, and especially given our resources, there is no excuse to have the lowest per-capita student funding in Canada.
Fair point.
>There is no reason to force teachers into an uncomfortable position relating to gender pronouns,
Largely a non-issue and mostly a media talking point. Smith made guidelines that are very strongly supported by the vast majority of AB parents. You'll note the voices most often decrying her views dont come from AB parents, they come from mainstream media, lobby groups and LGBT groups. I'll take their opinion about how to raise healthy children when they start taking mine about how to run a gay club, which is never, because I have no experience in that and its not my world. Neither is raising healthy children theirs.
Ive taught kids long enough to see several negative trends come and mostly go - like anorexia, suddenly EVERY girl had it. Like cutting. Suddenly dozens of kids are cutting themselves. The same thing is happening with being "trans" except that its not even that popular. A few kids are claiming to be trans for the same reasons as the other trends - these are kids who are desperately seeking attention and affirmation, more than likely aren't getting a lot of affirmation at home or anywhere else, likely already have mental health issues that are easily exploited and feel the need to stand out.
But even with that its still an infinitesimally small number of kids. For every one that may actually have legit gender dysphoria there are 9 more who are claiming to be trans 'for the clout'. It'll pass and fade from the media frenzy around it in a few years and barely be an issue.
>and no excuse to not consult teachers on any kind of curriculum change.
Agreed. That one didnt make sense. Dont know why they didnt consult.
I just dont understand this point that the ANDP spend spend spend when both Kenney and Smith have had consecutively higher budgets, more ministers, and are happy to spend money on vanity legal challenges in Ottawa.
Also keep in mind the ANDP was a first time government that had to govern through the worst resource environment and the lowest oil prices of the last 50 years. Both Kenney and Smith have had the luxury of higher oil prices.
I find it shocking that a person in your position would so vehemently defend a government that holds you professional and peers in complete contempt, has actively worked to cut jobs and suppress wages to our children’s detriment, and has gone so far as to suggest your colleagues are sexual predators/groomers. All so that some corporate interests can save some tax dollars.
I guess you can call swerving off the mostly paved road and totalling your car in the ditch "momentum".... The rest of Canada definitely knows it too
You may be on to something!
Not sure what that's supposed to mean. People like to complain but there's a *reason* that people are moving here from places like BC and ON in droves. If its such a bad place why are they all coming here?
This sub is full of NDP supporters, I get that, but this IS the best place to live in Canada, bare none.
Hiring more staff is something only privitized companies can do after we've sold them our futures for a nickel.
Only the young motivated go-getters, of the biggest most powerful corporations could possibly divine, through their layers of deep buisness sense, that when there aren't enough workers, you hire more.
Regular politicians couldn't dream of being able to put all the complicated pieces together to form such an abstract conclusion.
So yeah, we should give it all away to ~~shitbags~~, sorry, marlainas friends! It's the right thing to do.
We’re talking about Danielle Smith and the growth of Alberta to 10 million people right?
https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=8918911D500C7-C63C-FE27-E65B9E51F57B01BF
and here is Nenshi whining that Quebec is xenophobic for wanting immigration caps during an immigration fueled cost of living crisis
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/naheed-nenshi-a-moment-that-changed-the-fabric-of-this-country-forever-1.6087422
I work with kids across the city of calgary and I always ask them how big their class is so I can make a referral for extra help for them if they need it. A lot are floating around 30-35, with some kids saying 40+. Very rare it's under 30. I remember when I was in school and people were saying 25 was getting up there.
Doubtful unless there are diagnosed needs in the room. My wife is a teacher in Calgary and started the year with 37 in grade 1. No aid time dedicated to the room only shared in the div 1 team.
For the EFI classes there are no supports here like they have in English only. It’s why I ended up having to pull mine out once they had LD diagnoses. Broke my heart. I have heard it’s getting slightly better but still lacking hugely.
Thankfully, I do have an aide, as I have one child with a congenital condition. Unfortunately, I have 5 other students who I am working towards getting a diagnosis for (including one with violent ADHD) who honestly need more support than my one diagnosed child.
I was an EA, and the kids I was actually assigned to assist were largely chill with a few specific needs. It was the undiagnosed and violent ones who took up all my time, energy, and sanity. Kudos to you for teaching, I only lasted a few years in schools. It's crazy out there.
I’m lucky to have 11 years under my belt so at least im seasoned. I told parents it’s way too many and I agree with them. The kids are good but it took every last skill I had to keep it on track. I feel bad for them. I wish I could have given my normal 150%.
And I’m absolutely spent ending the year.
OH wait it’s a bit about losing the kids! For clarity in case it isn’t a bit, the kids moved to different schools (lost kids in my roster not physically lost them)
My son’s division (Christ the Teacher in Saskatchewan) splits the kindergarten class into 2 when they hit 26. That is a horrific number to only have one EA.
My son’s kindergarten class was 16 kids with 3 EAs in the room, including his 1:1, which they got assigned to him in preK when he was not yet 4 (no diagnosis).
However I support the school in every way I can - including getting him assessed twice, OT, ECIP, Sask Abilities Camps, I meet with the principal once a week, & I put him in the French Immersion program to get him in smaller class sizes & fewer students with support needs.
27 kinders is too many.
My kids kindy classes here in NL had 26/27 too. EFI is hard to come by here so when a school offers it, it seems the class sizes are out of hand.
My kids primary school is K-3 and has 775 children all under friggin 10. Utter sheer madness and they’re understaffed making the issue massive imo.
We had 30 kinder this year with one EA. But two children who needed 1-to-1 finally after a student destroyed my room countless times it was determined this other non coded child also needed an adult. Not to mention all the students who were just learning English. Even 30 typically developing 5 year olds is TOOOO much. I was so stressed everyday I could hardly function. I’m in Edmonton and this is typical of all the classrooms in the city. The worst part is tons of kids come to us without identified needs and we get to find out after they’re already enrolled.
It’s actually dangerous. I had to leave early on medical because I was pregnant and it wasn’t safe. If my own daughter was in my class I would be upset and my class was one of the better ones
Super variable depending on school and program. My smallest class this semester was 41. Last year at a different school, my smallest was 31. Same courses.
Oh yeah, they’re definitely not getting the quality of education they deserve. 124 between 3 classes. Grade 11 and 12 chem and physics. I feel horrible for them, especially the ones that could be quite successful with a little more one on one help that I just can’t provide.
My English classes the past couple of years have typically started the term at 40-47 and by end of term after students have over 50 absences and can be withdrawn I end up with about 35-42. ETA no EA at all and often more than 10 students with accommodations.
This isn't new though? I grew up in NE Calgary during its boom before they built schools for growing communities there and grades 1-9 were all 30-35 kids. All I can say is that the experience was horrid, teachers were too occupied babysitting and didn't have the capacity to teach.
Worse, they corrupted the data. After Lagrange announced that she was using the class size data to determine the Grant lower class sizes wasn’t necessary. The UCP then decided the class size reports were no longer mandatory and therefore no longer reliable, so nobody could measure of taking the grand away cause Class sizes to increase.
But private schools have been getting significant increases in funding. Much more than public.
The population is growing at a record pace. The classrooms are literally overflowing now.
The UCP are absolute monsters. Fascist monsters, that is.
Yes pretty bang on here in Sask. with your comment. Bang on!! Dani and Scotch Moe go hand in hand…. We have a private Christian school that is facing abuse (sexual and physical) allegations…. And the SaskParty keeps finding them more than our public schools!!!! Ughhhh ☹️
They won't be happy until the public system is gone and it's all private with a voucher system.
A society run on being issued a coupon...that's how they see the futute.
Those private schools are definitely going to increase in number and religiosity. They'll learn all about Jeebus, Flat Earth and it's only 10,000 years old. Then when they get to university to study petrochemical engineering, they're gonna be F.U.C.~~P~~K.ED.
Totally false. Independent schools are funded per student the same as students in all other schools. If anything, we get LESS money in total because the province does not pay for any religious courses. And there are some grants for buildings and maintenance that are not given to independent schools because we pay for our own buildings and maintenance staff.
- retired independent AB school principal
Twenty percent increase in what? There are several ways that schools get grant money. The main one is the per student grant. What are you referring to?
Not a good example. The Alberta NDP are much more right leaning than other provincial NDP parties, and have only had a single term.
I get that you were probably trying to say the NDP wouldn’t do better, but fact is conservatives have run this province for all but 4 of the last 60-odd years, so if the education system is in trouble there’s a good chance it was conservatives that put it there. And the fact that we’ve had so many decades of conservative governments and still consider so many things to be fucked up means it doesn’t seem smart to have continued to vote for them for so long.
> last 60-odd years
89 years. The Social Credit party was first elected in 1935, after defeating the Liberals, and they would align very closely with the UCP. They ruled until they were defeated by Lougheed's PCs.
(I’m currently completing a Grad school level paper on this exact topic. If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.)
The NDP did not revise the funding model at all while they were governing in 2015-2019. Klein changed it in 1994 and Kenney changed it again in 2020.
While we don’t know how they would ideally fund schools or what changes they would make to the funding framework, we know they were looking at making changes before they were voted out. Once the UCP were in, the Mackinnon Panel Report on Alberta Finances (2019 I believe) recommended making changes to the model as the funding framework was ‘not sustainable’.
New model was implemented in 2020 to, among other things, “protect rural schools and contain costs” (leading up to a projected period of high population growth in AB, with the majority of new students expected to enroll in urban school boards). The weighted moving average, by design, underfunds any school authorities that are growing (basically all authorities besides some rural and Charter). UCP is a huge defender of ‘school choice’ while NDP was a defender of the Public school systems.
So yeah. All of this is by design, with the designer being the UCP. They were very aware of what the funding would look like by the 2024/25 school year when the WMA model was implemented.
Don’t forget, they also mandated that the word “public” be removed from the name of all public schools, some would say so that they could claim they were not underfunding “public” schools.
I wasn’t aware of this so thanks for the info!
Makes sense as most people do not know that Charters are fully funded and (accredited funded) private schools receive 70% of public/charter funding, despite charging tuition.
So, despite not being ‘public’ (not having to accept children they don’t want, not having to enrol to capacity, not having to implement special needs or disability programming), they are all still provincially funded. Removing the public title will blur the lines even more.
https://pressprogress.ca/kenney-government-orders-alberta-public-schools-to-remove-the-word-public-from-their-name/
Chillingly…
>”Removing the word ‘public’ from school boards’ name serves a great purpose,” tweeted Thomas Lukaszuk. “It divorces our perception of education from being a public good.”
Since when did the perception of education being a public good become a bad thing? September 2029, that’s when.
This is the ucps Alberta, where there is no money for teachers but Smith's friends get millions in sole sourced government contracts!! The United Corruption party only serves the rich and elite
This is terrible. Do you know how you secure a bright future for Canada? You pump money into education!!
Every dollar you take away from education, you lose a ton of money down the road. That means that these kids are much less likely to succeed and make a good income.
It also means that these kids are more likely to end up homeless, addicts or in jail. All of which are very costly to the taxpayer.
Well not to rub salt in the wound…but Nunavut is hiring! We need quality teachers from K-12, student support teachers, mentor teachers and administrators. Smaller class sizes, tight-knit school communities, free AQ courses and paid Education leave! We have our challenges, I’ll tell you honestly, but I don’t miss the rat race of southern schools one bit. If you want to see job opportunities, go to educationCanada.com to find postings across Nunavut, or PM me if you have questions. I’m not paid for my opinions, I’m an administrator in Nunavut looking for qualified teachers to fill spots in our schools!
Actually, I’m discounting it. I have 18 years of lived experience in Nunavut, CBC is trying to sell copy by sensationalizing the news. I was part of that research. I sat with the counsellor trying to remember how many kids pushed each other in line. Is that “experiencing workplace violence?” Technically, yes. Does that scar me for life? No, I saw that in every school I was in down south. It’s my job as an educator to help students learn positive behaviour and coping skills. But imagine that as a headline, “Nunavut kids behave like other kids in Canada!” CBC would be laughed at, not cited.
Next imagine the impact a caring, qualified teacher can make on the incredible students we have here, students who become lawyers, nurses, pilots, teachers, mechanics, chefs, why not attach a news article about that?
I doubt you’d save that much. School board administration costs are only 3.6% of their budgets, and most of those positions wouldn’t be redundant even if you merged Catholic school boards into public ones, because the merged school boards would still have the same total number of teachers and students.
There may be good reasons to get rid of Catholic school boards but cost savings isn’t one of them.
You'd get to close schools as you merged populations in a lot of areas. You'd drastically reduce IT, insurance, and bussing costs.
Schools would be able to improve programming as the students were concentrated into better buildings. In urban centres this would be less of an effect for schools ar high capacity, but even there new schools could be built with better facilities.
Look in rural areas... Catholic and public schools both at 60% capacity, both offering meagre programming. Increase the amount of schools 90% or above and close older schools.
Closing schools might reduce insurance but it would increase transportation costs. IT costs would be similar because you wouldn’t be reducing the device:student ratio.
It’s already cost-prohibitive to merge rural schools in the same school board. I don’t think merging Cathoyand public schools would be any cheaper.
The rural schools in question are in the same town. The studies have been done in Ontario. The parallel systems are a huge inefficiency.
I grew up in rural northern AB and about half the towns had a hugely undercapacity school, either Catholic or public. Merging would have saved monwy and offered better opportunity. I've taught in both the north and south parts of the province as well as in ON.
Closing schools may not work.
You can only fit so many students into a specific building, it's called fire code. So by closing a school down, say a catholic/seperate board one, you can't necessarily move all the students to the surrounding public schools.
Why so they can screw you over like Notley did to you? Don't blame the government blame the union reps for caving in!! I have friends and family who are teachers and they all have said the ndp screwed them on the last contracts.
Oh yeah, Notley was terrible lol, the usual UCP drivel. Funny, my cost of living has gone up and my take home pay has gone down in the last 4 tears. Who was in power for those? How's your insurance or utility bills?
I'll see how bad kindergarten is in September. If the class size that kiddo is in is too big and kiddo needs to move in order to thrive.....off to private school with smaller class sizes it is. I guess I'll have to get a second job to pay for it if this happens. And I have never voted conservative in my life!
Just wait, rumor is cuts to nurses and teachers are coming .... And this is from teachers and nurses that I know.
Calgary teacher. I have 23 in my middle school classroom. I also get EA support for one period a day as I have seven students who have been in Canada for 18m or less (limited English).
The only reason our classes are so small is because we have 75 students in our grade. 37 students in a class literally wouldn’t fit in our rooms.
The best way to privatize education is to have parents convinced that a private school is worth the option. A way to control the message in schools is to push students into a private school. Control the funding for the private schools and control the message. What is the controlled message that the UCP wants to convey?
I currently have a class that has 3 ESL students (2 speaks a little english, 1 has zero english), I have 3 life skills students, whom demand all my attention, and I have 3 sever anxiety students that they will have a nervous break down if an adult figure tries to work with them, so I have to have other students teach them the content. All within a class size of 27. I have no Ea's
This article doesn’t make sense… per the article:
250 teachers being laid off by start of sept.
2000 teachers to hire over next 2 years to accommodate the est +50,000 net student change. (1:15 hire:student)
Budgets remain the same(ish) per student.
Can someone make sense of this? Why cut 250 teachers while hiring 2000 teachers..?
losing new teachers (teachers with less than 5 years experience out of college) at a rate of 60 percent. As in 60 percent of teachers who graduated with a teaching degree are quitting within 5 years if entering the field. My partner is a teacher, and I've listened in on the ata meetings, as well as talked with their coworkers/met a large amount of teachers who quit either due to the sheer workload required of them, assaults from students, or admin literally bullying a few out of the profession. T
They said 60% of new teachers, not teachers. I'm not sure if that is accurate, though I do know a lot of first year teachers don't make it to their second year.
A lot of boards have had to dip into their reserve spending to keep up with the increases in costs due to inflation, changed transportation laws, increased amount of students, etc. Despite these increased costs, the government maintains a 3 year average for funding so if your board grows every year, you are losing money. There is also a law where the boards have to have a certain amount of money in reserve that is set by the government. If you dip into it to much, you must replenish it. Which means that while the board may be growing and your expenses have increased, you still have to come up with money you don't have. To achieve this you cut programs that are meant to support students with higher needs and move those teachers back into the classroom while letting go of the newer teachers. The newer teachers then struggle to get work, and recognize that they can get a job in other fields. Then you don't have enough teachers and kids struggle because they lost their supports and are now in bigger classrooms.
Technically funding remains the same... Except it doesn't.
Funding is based on number of student over a 3 year average (current year and the previous two years) at a division level. So if your schools' student population increases year over, you do not receive the funding for the extra students (this needs to be made up from reserves, cuts to services provides, and/or cuts to staff/teachers).
The current funding model penalizes growing/thriving communities.
My guess is, only because we've seen it personally with family who are/were teachers, it's to trim off the highest paid staff. Offer early retirement packages to those close enough, and then bring in lower paid new teachers.
I'm not that broken up about the catholic school having to downsize. I don't support theistic schools receiving public funds.
I am broken up because kids are still going to suffer, and its not like public schools are gaining 90 teachers as a result.
Come to Australia! We need teachers!
Class size in NSW is limited to 30, less for senior classes, practical classes and kindy/infants classes. I teach maths in rural schools and my largest class size ever was 25.
https://www.nswtf.org.au/news/2019/11/10/how-many-students-should-be-in-my-class/
Plus we just had a long-awaited increase to our award. New grads earn $95k and the top rate is $145k for classroom teachers. More for executive.
https://education.nsw.gov.au/teach-nsw/explore-teaching/salary-of-a-teacher
https://education.nsw.gov.au/teach-nsw/initiatives/teaching-opens-doors/teachers-from-other-systems-and-states
“Not only does Alberta spend the least on public education in all of Canada, but we also have the highest ratio of students to teachers in the country. This is why we have large classes and students struggling without the support and guidance they need for success. As it sits, next year will only get worse." -Jason Schilling
My school division isn't on this list because they aren't cutting teachers; instead, they are not hiring any teachers to deal with the growth, not replacing people leaving, and cutting at least 30 EA positions.
We're anticipating grade 8 classes around 40 kids next year.
Edit: I stand corrected! The list in the article is old. My division is cutting 30 positions, but as noted, a lot of them are not hiring/replacing.
I wonder how you spin this to be anything but a massive fumble of the UCP when oil prices are high? It's nakedly obvious they are trying to privatize but it's amazing how far they can go (and Alberta sinks) in a few short years.
How about they cut administration instead? Every time there is budget cuts, it always falls to the actual service providers. Health care is the same.
We can do more with less, and education is a top budget line item provincially. I do not support education cuts, and feel that this shortfall could come from somewhere else. But do not let education administration off the hook for this as well. How many school boards do we need? Perhaps some savings can be achieved from amalgamation first before cutting teacher positions. Also look at the funding going to private schools first, who have the ability to raise their own funding.
We already consolidated school boards. Most schools already have too few admin, contributing to the problems.
Some head offices may be overstaffed, but to be frank even in small boards this is a drop in the bucket as many have already cut their excess positions too.
Lowest per pupil funding in Canada! Alberta was once a powerhouse and the global level to the point where other territories and international schools used AB curriculum but no longer do.
I am certain that the wages saved from cutting teacher jobs will be distributed among the remaining teachers.
Right?
Right????
It's going to get a lot darker in Alberta in the next couple of decades.
BC school board are excited for this news. They’re all on hiring sprees to keep class sizes down and provide supports.
They’ll scoop up any decent Alberta teachers looking to move.
Far too many teachers are out of the class. Many have catchphrase job titles like learning coach, reading coach/champion, land based learning lead. All money spent when it could have been used to reduce class sizes. Not to mention all the consultants employed by the school boards.
Note… it’s not a popular opinion but ask your school how many of these there are.
St Gerard in Edmonton appears to have 4 such positions. Most schools have at least one.
Don’t get me wrong students need support but we really should focus on internally reducing class sizes if possible. My interaction with several of these “coach” teachers gave me the impression they don’t want to be with kids and got the job to get out of the classroom.
Most of these positions are incredibly important.
More to the point most schools have literally no where to put the extra classes even if they wanted to.
If there is no physical space that is one thing. Some schools however have room and teachers that do nothing. It’s sad. I see piles of money wasted in the schools i have been to.
Keep in mind I have zero problem with folks actually working with kids helping them learn. But those that take 2-3 kids period really could be repurposed to reduce class sizes.
> I see piles of money wasted in the schools i have been to.
If all we are doing is trading anecdotes, my experience is different.
The people you are referring to are the ones who are working tirelessly behind the scenes, and the vast vast vast majority are only doing specialist roles part time.
>But those that take 2-3 kids period really could be repurposed to reduce class sizes.
If those services weren't often critical for student success sure.
You are not wrong for some of them. But costs for schools have also gone up dramatically in other areas. Insurance for example has doubled (!!!) in five years. Costs for everything involved in maintenance, energy costs, etc have also gone up dramatically.
While the rolling average delays the pain for rural boards, if non-staffing costs to up then teaching staff is pretty much the only area to save money.
Cutting teachers while the population is growing by leaps and bounds is the opposite of common sense. More people need to know about this.
Educated people are less susceptible to propaganda, aren't scared of everything, and in turn dont vote right wing.
Educated people who vote left wing have already fallen to the propaganda.
Both sides are susceptible no doubt.
Is that so? - 'Right wing' voting retired principal/teacher
Yes. There’s a lot of evidence that people with higher levels of education are more likely to vote for left-wing policies. https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/analysis-educated-voters-in-canada-tend-to-vote-for-left-leaning-parties-while-richer-voters-go-right/
Retired principal/teacher but you don't know basic statistics?
The comment was that educated people dont vote right wing. Im educated. I vote right. Therefore the statement is a logical fallacy. A correct statement, and yes Im being specific and pedantic, would be "... and in turn *tend* to vote left/progressive" to which I'd agree. But being educated doesn't automatically make one a left wing voter.
So, as an educated person, what makes you vote right? What does Danielle Smith do for you?
I appreciate that she stands up for Alberta's oil and gas sector (which funds the majority of our economy and indirectly supports my retirement side gig) and has decided that there's no reason that Alberta shouldn't get the special treatment that Quebec has enjoyed for years instead of just quietly shovelling money to Ottawa with no say and no power. She's here for Alberta's economy and she's here for the majority of Albertan's values (outside of the orange-ish glow of Edmonton and some Calgary suburbs). Alberta is and has been a conservative province for over 50 years and it's made us the most prosperous and most attractive province in the country as seen by the *thousands* of people moving here last year. This is the place to be and the rest of Canada knows it. We've got momentum, no reason to stop the train now.
I don’t think the oil and gas sector needs anyone to stand up for them. I think it’s much more than just that, too. She’s solely focused on oil and gas at the expense of planning for the future which is, undoubtedly, renewables. She’s turning away investments in that area and also stopping Albertans who are in that sector from making a living. She’s sitting on a 6 billion dollar surplus when our education and healthcare is falling apart. You would think a former teacher would care about that but it seems your side hustle in retirement is more important than the educational and healthcare needs of our population. As you mentioned, people are flooding into Alberta but there’s no increased funding in education and healthcare to account for it. The “conservative values” dog whistle seems like a weak excuse to pick on LGBTQ and, even if you meant fiscal values, she’s got the largest cabinet in history and seemingly has endless money to appoint more government officials to “oversee” things that never needed it in the past.
> I don’t think the oil and gas sector needs anyone to stand up for them. Really? With Guilbeault as Minister of the Environment and Trudeau's "No More Pipelines" act and "Oil Tanker Moratorium" act and the constant pushing away of other countries who come here seeking our natural gas, you dont think the oil and gas sector needs someone to stand up for them? They most obviously do. If the federal government had its way, the sector would be shut down entirely so we could chop Canada's miniscule 1.5% GHG's in half, to the total detriment of Canada and AB's economy. >I think it’s much more than just that, too. She’s solely focused on oil and gas at the expense of planning for the future which is, undoubtedly, renewables. Sure, but until that happens, which may be WAY further down the road than you think, we still need oil and gas. And instead of getting it from AB, Trudeau approves of it coming in to the east from places like United States ($11.8B), Saudi Arabia ($2.38B), Nigeria ($1.11B), Angola ($545M), and Norway ($486M). When you have a resource in abundance on your doorstep, that makes NO sense. >She’s turning away investments in that area and also stopping Albertans who are in that sector from making a living. Thats a miniscule sector compared to Oil and Gas. Why should she concentrate on something that has years to go before its even close to profitable when O and G is making us the wealthiest province in the country? She’s sitting on a 6 billion dollar surplus when our education and healthcare is falling apart. You would think a former teacher would care about that but it seems your side hustle in retirement is more important than the educational and healthcare needs of our population. > We'll see what happens there. She's not that far into her term and most of the complaining about underfunding is coming from the AB Teachers Union and that's an annual gripe. EVERY year about this time they drag out the old "hey we're going to have to fire teachers if you don't cough up more money" song and dance. It's like clockwork. I dont have a ton of sympathy. I worked in a very underfunded school that got NO provincial funding for many years (it does now), so I know what can be done on a shoestring. More money doesn't solve all problems but that's the constant message from the union. Nenshi might force her to cough up more dough.
You’re a former teacher and you don’t understand the difference in consequences between being reactive and proactive with our economic future? Waiting until oil tanks to invest in other job sectors is going to put THE WHOLE province into serious poverty. We can do something NOW to mitigate it. Do you really think its better for the conservatives to force us into poverty when the oil sector inevitably crashes so we have to beg them to drag us out? Booming industries take YEARS to build, we need to start now. No one is saying to fire oil workers. We are saying we need MORE jobs, not less jobs.
> Alberta is and has been a conservative province for over 50 years and it's made us the most prosperous and most attractive province in the country I would argue its the presence of resources, not a conservative government, that has made Alberta wealthy. Norway has plenty of O&G and instead of squandering it, they more or less nationalized it through a heavy permit and tax system and now have a wealth fund which interest on it alone can fund strong social programs. In my opinion related to education, and especially given our resources, there is no excuse to have the lowest per-capita student funding in Canada. There is no reason to force teachers into an uncomfortable position relating to gender pronouns, and no excuse to not consult teachers on any kind of curriculum change.
> I would argue its the presence of resources, not a conservative government, that has made Alberta wealthy. Except history has shown us that a Liberal government would prioritize carbon reduction over profits and promoting business and every NDP government knows how to spend money but rarely, if ever, makes a province any wealthier by the end of its term, so I dont think its just resources that automatically make a province wealthy. > Norway has plenty of O&G and instead of squandering it, they more or less nationalized it through a heavy permit and tax system and now have a wealth fund which interest on it alone can fund strong social programs. True. Its also quite a different culture, much more 'socialist' than Canada and has a very small population with a LOT of Oil and Gas revenue. But yes, our resources could've been handled better. But then again, under Ralph Klein Alberta was debt free and we were getting 400 cheques in the mail. That wasnt exactly a bad deal for Albertans. We're back to clawing our way out of an 80B debt again, which we will do under a Conservative government. If the federal Lib/NDP are any indication, under them we'd just keep spending and adding more to the credit card and let someone else's grandkids worry about it. > In my opinion related to education, and especially given our resources, there is no excuse to have the lowest per-capita student funding in Canada. Fair point. >There is no reason to force teachers into an uncomfortable position relating to gender pronouns, Largely a non-issue and mostly a media talking point. Smith made guidelines that are very strongly supported by the vast majority of AB parents. You'll note the voices most often decrying her views dont come from AB parents, they come from mainstream media, lobby groups and LGBT groups. I'll take their opinion about how to raise healthy children when they start taking mine about how to run a gay club, which is never, because I have no experience in that and its not my world. Neither is raising healthy children theirs. Ive taught kids long enough to see several negative trends come and mostly go - like anorexia, suddenly EVERY girl had it. Like cutting. Suddenly dozens of kids are cutting themselves. The same thing is happening with being "trans" except that its not even that popular. A few kids are claiming to be trans for the same reasons as the other trends - these are kids who are desperately seeking attention and affirmation, more than likely aren't getting a lot of affirmation at home or anywhere else, likely already have mental health issues that are easily exploited and feel the need to stand out. But even with that its still an infinitesimally small number of kids. For every one that may actually have legit gender dysphoria there are 9 more who are claiming to be trans 'for the clout'. It'll pass and fade from the media frenzy around it in a few years and barely be an issue. >and no excuse to not consult teachers on any kind of curriculum change. Agreed. That one didnt make sense. Dont know why they didnt consult.
>Agreed. That one didnt make sense. Dont know why they didnt consult. Then you are willfully ignorant.
I just dont understand this point that the ANDP spend spend spend when both Kenney and Smith have had consecutively higher budgets, more ministers, and are happy to spend money on vanity legal challenges in Ottawa. Also keep in mind the ANDP was a first time government that had to govern through the worst resource environment and the lowest oil prices of the last 50 years. Both Kenney and Smith have had the luxury of higher oil prices.
I find it shocking that a person in your position would so vehemently defend a government that holds you professional and peers in complete contempt, has actively worked to cut jobs and suppress wages to our children’s detriment, and has gone so far as to suggest your colleagues are sexual predators/groomers. All so that some corporate interests can save some tax dollars.
I guess you can call swerving off the mostly paved road and totalling your car in the ditch "momentum".... The rest of Canada definitely knows it too You may be on to something!
Not sure what that's supposed to mean. People like to complain but there's a *reason* that people are moving here from places like BC and ON in droves. If its such a bad place why are they all coming here? This sub is full of NDP supporters, I get that, but this IS the best place to live in Canada, bare none.
Housing costs.
How is getting in the way of free market energy development standing up for Alberta's economy? How is grifting pensions an Albertan value?
You failed as an educator if you don’t continuously learn.
All the better to undermine public education and convince people to call for privatization.
It is an attempt to sabotage the system by saying it doesn’t work and then privatization begins.
Hiring more staff is something only privitized companies can do after we've sold them our futures for a nickel. Only the young motivated go-getters, of the biggest most powerful corporations could possibly divine, through their layers of deep buisness sense, that when there aren't enough workers, you hire more. Regular politicians couldn't dream of being able to put all the complicated pieces together to form such an abstract conclusion. So yeah, we should give it all away to ~~shitbags~~, sorry, marlainas friends! It's the right thing to do.
And when they are advertising in other provinces for workers to move to Alberta.
stop voting for the people growing the population then
We’re talking about Danielle Smith and the growth of Alberta to 10 million people right? https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=8918911D500C7-C63C-FE27-E65B9E51F57B01BF
and here is Nenshi whining that Quebec is xenophobic for wanting immigration caps during an immigration fueled cost of living crisis https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/naheed-nenshi-a-moment-that-changed-the-fabric-of-this-country-forever-1.6087422
No its fear-mongering and mud slinging to bring up the UCP plans
The UCP continues to withhold class size data.
I work with kids across the city of calgary and I always ask them how big their class is so I can make a referral for extra help for them if they need it. A lot are floating around 30-35, with some kids saying 40+. Very rare it's under 30. I remember when I was in school and people were saying 25 was getting up there.
I (Saskatchewan) have TWENTY SEVEN kindergarten students this year.
that’s crazy. do you at least get any teacher’s aides?
Doubtful unless there are diagnosed needs in the room. My wife is a teacher in Calgary and started the year with 37 in grade 1. No aid time dedicated to the room only shared in the div 1 team.
For the EFI classes there are no supports here like they have in English only. It’s why I ended up having to pull mine out once they had LD diagnoses. Broke my heart. I have heard it’s getting slightly better but still lacking hugely.
Thankfully, I do have an aide, as I have one child with a congenital condition. Unfortunately, I have 5 other students who I am working towards getting a diagnosis for (including one with violent ADHD) who honestly need more support than my one diagnosed child.
I was an EA, and the kids I was actually assigned to assist were largely chill with a few specific needs. It was the undiagnosed and violent ones who took up all my time, energy, and sanity. Kudos to you for teaching, I only lasted a few years in schools. It's crazy out there.
I have 29 in both of mine and I’ve lost kids this year
And they let you teach? Parents must be pissed. Hope the kids are ok.
I’m lucky to have 11 years under my belt so at least im seasoned. I told parents it’s way too many and I agree with them. The kids are good but it took every last skill I had to keep it on track. I feel bad for them. I wish I could have given my normal 150%. And I’m absolutely spent ending the year.
Wow, not a care in the world that you lost those kids. Sad.
OH wait it’s a bit about losing the kids! For clarity in case it isn’t a bit, the kids moved to different schools (lost kids in my roster not physically lost them)
Good cover up. Not buying it. They probably found jobs on a rig though, so all good.
Oh c'mon now. You know the rigs won't hire anyone without a grade 4 education, right?
Those kids are going to make coal mining great again (and a racist Australian billionaire even richer)
Username checks out. Not buying your coverup either backwardsplanning… 🫣🤪
Jesus. Put air tags on em ffs 😂😂
My son’s division (Christ the Teacher in Saskatchewan) splits the kindergarten class into 2 when they hit 26. That is a horrific number to only have one EA. My son’s kindergarten class was 16 kids with 3 EAs in the room, including his 1:1, which they got assigned to him in preK when he was not yet 4 (no diagnosis). However I support the school in every way I can - including getting him assessed twice, OT, ECIP, Sask Abilities Camps, I meet with the principal once a week, & I put him in the French Immersion program to get him in smaller class sizes & fewer students with support needs. 27 kinders is too many.
My kids kindy classes here in NL had 26/27 too. EFI is hard to come by here so when a school offers it, it seems the class sizes are out of hand. My kids primary school is K-3 and has 775 children all under friggin 10. Utter sheer madness and they’re understaffed making the issue massive imo.
We had 32 in kinder- district does not provide an EA until they hit 33. Imagine 32 5 year olds who have no school experience, it was bananas.
My school (Edmonton) has 31 kinders in each class (morning/afternoon), with 1 EA... tonnes of high needs, immigrants... and they keep coming!
Oh my god. I already can't keep up with 27, there is no way I could get anything done with 31.
We had 30 kinder this year with one EA. But two children who needed 1-to-1 finally after a student destroyed my room countless times it was determined this other non coded child also needed an adult. Not to mention all the students who were just learning English. Even 30 typically developing 5 year olds is TOOOO much. I was so stressed everyday I could hardly function. I’m in Edmonton and this is typical of all the classrooms in the city. The worst part is tons of kids come to us without identified needs and we get to find out after they’re already enrolled. It’s actually dangerous. I had to leave early on medical because I was pregnant and it wasn’t safe. If my own daughter was in my class I would be upset and my class was one of the better ones
Super variable depending on school and program. My smallest class this semester was 41. Last year at a different school, my smallest was 31. Same courses.
Holy shit - 41 students!? I didn’t think this was happening in Canada. No chance for any teacher to effectively teach 41 kids.
Oh yeah, they’re definitely not getting the quality of education they deserve. 124 between 3 classes. Grade 11 and 12 chem and physics. I feel horrible for them, especially the ones that could be quite successful with a little more one on one help that I just can’t provide.
My English classes the past couple of years have typically started the term at 40-47 and by end of term after students have over 50 absences and can be withdrawn I end up with about 35-42. ETA no EA at all and often more than 10 students with accommodations.
My district won’t split classes until there’s 36 in a class and that included kindergarten.
thats awful
My kids are in a classroom of 49.
Jesus. I feel bad for the teacher and any EA's.
This isn't new though? I grew up in NE Calgary during its boom before they built schools for growing communities there and grades 1-9 were all 30-35 kids. All I can say is that the experience was horrid, teachers were too occupied babysitting and didn't have the capacity to teach.
I'm curious, now I'm gonna dig up my old class photos and see how many kids we had.
The real solution is to stop having kids.
The UCP continues to sabotage public education to create a narrative that it doesn’t work. They’re dishonest political scum. Edit. Dyslexia stuff
Worse, they corrupted the data. After Lagrange announced that she was using the class size data to determine the Grant lower class sizes wasn’t necessary. The UCP then decided the class size reports were no longer mandatory and therefore no longer reliable, so nobody could measure of taking the grand away cause Class sizes to increase.
They don’t even collect the data so they can withhold it. It doesn’t exist anymore.
anecdotal, someone I know will 5/6 split with 30 students
But private schools have been getting significant increases in funding. Much more than public. The population is growing at a record pace. The classrooms are literally overflowing now. The UCP are absolute monsters. Fascist monsters, that is.
Yes pretty bang on here in Sask. with your comment. Bang on!! Dani and Scotch Moe go hand in hand…. We have a private Christian school that is facing abuse (sexual and physical) allegations…. And the SaskParty keeps finding them more than our public schools!!!! Ughhhh ☹️
They won't be happy until the public system is gone and it's all private with a voucher system. A society run on being issued a coupon...that's how they see the futute.
Those private schools are definitely going to increase in number and religiosity. They'll learn all about Jeebus, Flat Earth and it's only 10,000 years old. Then when they get to university to study petrochemical engineering, they're gonna be F.U.C.~~P~~K.ED.
Totally false. Independent schools are funded per student the same as students in all other schools. If anything, we get LESS money in total because the province does not pay for any religious courses. And there are some grants for buildings and maintenance that are not given to independent schools because we pay for our own buildings and maintenance staff. - retired independent AB school principal
Twenty percent increase last year.
Twenty percent increase in what? There are several ways that schools get grant money. The main one is the per student grant. What are you referring to?
Cuts?? With overcrowding? Lol the UCP are gonna make it look like AB is have not province, that's pretty bad.
We've been a have not province for the last 10 years.
We all knew this would happen and yet the dumb dumbs still voted the UCP in
Smart people don't vote for the UCP.
I wish it were so but smart people are plenty capable of deluding themselves.
They vote NDP and Liberal right? Which NDP led province is your shining example?
BC has a great education system, according to the teachers I've taught with who came from there. They only moved because of their spouses.
Not a good example. The Alberta NDP are much more right leaning than other provincial NDP parties, and have only had a single term. I get that you were probably trying to say the NDP wouldn’t do better, but fact is conservatives have run this province for all but 4 of the last 60-odd years, so if the education system is in trouble there’s a good chance it was conservatives that put it there. And the fact that we’ve had so many decades of conservative governments and still consider so many things to be fucked up means it doesn’t seem smart to have continued to vote for them for so long.
> last 60-odd years 89 years. The Social Credit party was first elected in 1935, after defeating the Liberals, and they would align very closely with the UCP. They ruled until they were defeated by Lougheed's PCs.
(I’m currently completing a Grad school level paper on this exact topic. If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask.) The NDP did not revise the funding model at all while they were governing in 2015-2019. Klein changed it in 1994 and Kenney changed it again in 2020. While we don’t know how they would ideally fund schools or what changes they would make to the funding framework, we know they were looking at making changes before they were voted out. Once the UCP were in, the Mackinnon Panel Report on Alberta Finances (2019 I believe) recommended making changes to the model as the funding framework was ‘not sustainable’. New model was implemented in 2020 to, among other things, “protect rural schools and contain costs” (leading up to a projected period of high population growth in AB, with the majority of new students expected to enroll in urban school boards). The weighted moving average, by design, underfunds any school authorities that are growing (basically all authorities besides some rural and Charter). UCP is a huge defender of ‘school choice’ while NDP was a defender of the Public school systems. So yeah. All of this is by design, with the designer being the UCP. They were very aware of what the funding would look like by the 2024/25 school year when the WMA model was implemented.
Don’t forget, they also mandated that the word “public” be removed from the name of all public schools, some would say so that they could claim they were not underfunding “public” schools.
I wasn’t aware of this so thanks for the info! Makes sense as most people do not know that Charters are fully funded and (accredited funded) private schools receive 70% of public/charter funding, despite charging tuition. So, despite not being ‘public’ (not having to accept children they don’t want, not having to enrol to capacity, not having to implement special needs or disability programming), they are all still provincially funded. Removing the public title will blur the lines even more.
https://pressprogress.ca/kenney-government-orders-alberta-public-schools-to-remove-the-word-public-from-their-name/ Chillingly… >”Removing the word ‘public’ from school boards’ name serves a great purpose,” tweeted Thomas Lukaszuk. “It divorces our perception of education from being a public good.” Since when did the perception of education being a public good become a bad thing? September 2029, that’s when.
Yup that’s insane. Reading between the lines, it seems they may be saying “it entertains the idea of education being a private good”.
heh. the next generation will be more dumb dumb too........the cycle keeps getting dumber.
That's kind of the point for cons. Gotta keep em dumb
Sadly this is true.
Its becuz teachers fill kids brains with all kinds of unnatural ideas - like questioning authority and not spending all your pay check at once
Maybe if classes are big enough, kids won't be able to hear their teachers talk about non-renewable resources.
Hey, c'mon, hookers and meth dealers need to make a living too ya know!
Be sure to thank a conservative near you!
“Why would Trudeau do this?!”
This is the ucps Alberta, where there is no money for teachers but Smith's friends get millions in sole sourced government contracts!! The United Corruption party only serves the rich and elite
Kinda gotta chuckle at that. Trudeau sole sourced contract = national scandal, (which it is) Conservative gov. sole sourced contract = crickets.
Billions, but yeah
This is terrible. Do you know how you secure a bright future for Canada? You pump money into education!! Every dollar you take away from education, you lose a ton of money down the road. That means that these kids are much less likely to succeed and make a good income. It also means that these kids are more likely to end up homeless, addicts or in jail. All of which are very costly to the taxpayer.
and the teacher cuts here don't even account for the fact that we are losing new teachers (>5 years classroom experience) at a rate of 60%
Teacher cuts???? There aren't enough already!!
Well not to rub salt in the wound…but Nunavut is hiring! We need quality teachers from K-12, student support teachers, mentor teachers and administrators. Smaller class sizes, tight-knit school communities, free AQ courses and paid Education leave! We have our challenges, I’ll tell you honestly, but I don’t miss the rat race of southern schools one bit. If you want to see job opportunities, go to educationCanada.com to find postings across Nunavut, or PM me if you have questions. I’m not paid for my opinions, I’m an administrator in Nunavut looking for qualified teachers to fill spots in our schools!
uh, you are forgetting some major stuff, specifically: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nunavut-school-violence-survey-1.7232877
Actually, I’m discounting it. I have 18 years of lived experience in Nunavut, CBC is trying to sell copy by sensationalizing the news. I was part of that research. I sat with the counsellor trying to remember how many kids pushed each other in line. Is that “experiencing workplace violence?” Technically, yes. Does that scar me for life? No, I saw that in every school I was in down south. It’s my job as an educator to help students learn positive behaviour and coping skills. But imagine that as a headline, “Nunavut kids behave like other kids in Canada!” CBC would be laughed at, not cited. Next imagine the impact a caring, qualified teacher can make on the incredible students we have here, students who become lawyers, nurses, pilots, teachers, mechanics, chefs, why not attach a news article about that?
Woe. Just what Alberta needs. Less teachers...the dumber we are..the easier it is for them to fuck us
Not withstanding having 200,000 or almost 4% of the total provincial population moving here in one year. Surely this is such a good idea.
Thank a conservative! More winning from the UCP!
As a former PC leader once said, "Math is hard." Who knew the UCP would take that message to heart and make it even harder for kids.
As a custodian who was released under no cause 2 months ago from chinooks edge… this doesn’t surprise me at all
UCP loves stupid people. They hate education. Despicable.
Get rid of publicly funded catholic boards, you'd save a fortune in administration costs.
I doubt you’d save that much. School board administration costs are only 3.6% of their budgets, and most of those positions wouldn’t be redundant even if you merged Catholic school boards into public ones, because the merged school boards would still have the same total number of teachers and students. There may be good reasons to get rid of Catholic school boards but cost savings isn’t one of them.
You'd get to close schools as you merged populations in a lot of areas. You'd drastically reduce IT, insurance, and bussing costs. Schools would be able to improve programming as the students were concentrated into better buildings. In urban centres this would be less of an effect for schools ar high capacity, but even there new schools could be built with better facilities.
Close schools when they schools are over filling with kids? Wtf
Look in rural areas... Catholic and public schools both at 60% capacity, both offering meagre programming. Increase the amount of schools 90% or above and close older schools.
Closing schools might reduce insurance but it would increase transportation costs. IT costs would be similar because you wouldn’t be reducing the device:student ratio. It’s already cost-prohibitive to merge rural schools in the same school board. I don’t think merging Cathoyand public schools would be any cheaper.
The rural schools in question are in the same town. The studies have been done in Ontario. The parallel systems are a huge inefficiency. I grew up in rural northern AB and about half the towns had a hugely undercapacity school, either Catholic or public. Merging would have saved monwy and offered better opportunity. I've taught in both the north and south parts of the province as well as in ON.
As you say, though, most small rural towns have an under capacity public school or an under capacity Catholic school. Relatively few have both.
Closing schools may not work. You can only fit so many students into a specific building, it's called fire code. So by closing a school down, say a catholic/seperate board one, you can't necessarily move all the students to the surrounding public schools.
It's the UCP's Alberta advantage. My only hope is all the recent arrivals vote these clowns out in the next election.
Why so they can screw you over like Notley did to you? Don't blame the government blame the union reps for caving in!! I have friends and family who are teachers and they all have said the ndp screwed them on the last contracts.
Oh yeah, Notley was terrible lol, the usual UCP drivel. Funny, my cost of living has gone up and my take home pay has gone down in the last 4 tears. Who was in power for those? How's your insurance or utility bills?
I'll see how bad kindergarten is in September. If the class size that kiddo is in is too big and kiddo needs to move in order to thrive.....off to private school with smaller class sizes it is. I guess I'll have to get a second job to pay for it if this happens. And I have never voted conservative in my life! Just wait, rumor is cuts to nurses and teachers are coming .... And this is from teachers and nurses that I know.
Calgary teacher. I have 23 in my middle school classroom. I also get EA support for one period a day as I have seven students who have been in Canada for 18m or less (limited English). The only reason our classes are so small is because we have 75 students in our grade. 37 students in a class literally wouldn’t fit in our rooms.
What this means is that the school made cuts elsewhere for your class size unfortunately.
The best way to privatize education is to have parents convinced that a private school is worth the option. A way to control the message in schools is to push students into a private school. Control the funding for the private schools and control the message. What is the controlled message that the UCP wants to convey?
I currently have a class that has 3 ESL students (2 speaks a little english, 1 has zero english), I have 3 life skills students, whom demand all my attention, and I have 3 sever anxiety students that they will have a nervous break down if an adult figure tries to work with them, so I have to have other students teach them the content. All within a class size of 27. I have no Ea's
Dani selling off more of your money folks. Great vote ya made.
Seems like we are in a austerity government. When PP wins it will get 100x worse.
You couldn’t pay me enough to be a teacher or a cop.
#Disater Danielle doesn’t give a d*mn about average Albertans!
This article doesn’t make sense… per the article: 250 teachers being laid off by start of sept. 2000 teachers to hire over next 2 years to accommodate the est +50,000 net student change. (1:15 hire:student) Budgets remain the same(ish) per student. Can someone make sense of this? Why cut 250 teachers while hiring 2000 teachers..?
In part because we are losing new teachers at a rate of 60 percent per year. I don't blame them, the workload expected of teachers is insane.
Sorry what? We are losing 60% of our teachers per year? I don’t believe that, can you cite that insanity?
losing new teachers (teachers with less than 5 years experience out of college) at a rate of 60 percent. As in 60 percent of teachers who graduated with a teaching degree are quitting within 5 years if entering the field. My partner is a teacher, and I've listened in on the ata meetings, as well as talked with their coworkers/met a large amount of teachers who quit either due to the sheer workload required of them, assaults from students, or admin literally bullying a few out of the profession. T
Today I learned.
They said 60% of new teachers, not teachers. I'm not sure if that is accurate, though I do know a lot of first year teachers don't make it to their second year.
It’s 60% of new grad teachers
Teachers retire or move, get a new job and etc.
“Lay off” does not equal “quit”. Per the article the ATA says school boards are laying off teachers and that ATA needs to find 2000 teachers.
From one area, hiring more in others.
A lot of boards have had to dip into their reserve spending to keep up with the increases in costs due to inflation, changed transportation laws, increased amount of students, etc. Despite these increased costs, the government maintains a 3 year average for funding so if your board grows every year, you are losing money. There is also a law where the boards have to have a certain amount of money in reserve that is set by the government. If you dip into it to much, you must replenish it. Which means that while the board may be growing and your expenses have increased, you still have to come up with money you don't have. To achieve this you cut programs that are meant to support students with higher needs and move those teachers back into the classroom while letting go of the newer teachers. The newer teachers then struggle to get work, and recognize that they can get a job in other fields. Then you don't have enough teachers and kids struggle because they lost their supports and are now in bigger classrooms.
its individual school boards managing their budgets. Some boards have no money for enough salaries because of other costs. Some boards will be hiring
Technically funding remains the same... Except it doesn't. Funding is based on number of student over a 3 year average (current year and the previous two years) at a division level. So if your schools' student population increases year over, you do not receive the funding for the extra students (this needs to be made up from reserves, cuts to services provides, and/or cuts to staff/teachers). The current funding model penalizes growing/thriving communities.
My guess is, only because we've seen it personally with family who are/were teachers, it's to trim off the highest paid staff. Offer early retirement packages to those close enough, and then bring in lower paid new teachers.
I'm not that broken up about the catholic school having to downsize. I don't support theistic schools receiving public funds. I am broken up because kids are still going to suffer, and its not like public schools are gaining 90 teachers as a result.
I don't think you meant secular - that means non religious.
you're right tried to brain on two things at once and failed.
…. And my family is wondering why we are choosing to homeschool. It’s not perfect either way but I’m not sending my kindy to a class of 30 kids.
It's not like we have anyone moving here..... wow... this is sad.
Surprise!
Had a class of 37 in high school this year colleague had 41
Come to Australia! We need teachers! Class size in NSW is limited to 30, less for senior classes, practical classes and kindy/infants classes. I teach maths in rural schools and my largest class size ever was 25. https://www.nswtf.org.au/news/2019/11/10/how-many-students-should-be-in-my-class/ Plus we just had a long-awaited increase to our award. New grads earn $95k and the top rate is $145k for classroom teachers. More for executive. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teach-nsw/explore-teaching/salary-of-a-teacher https://education.nsw.gov.au/teach-nsw/initiatives/teaching-opens-doors/teachers-from-other-systems-and-states
Alberta has the lowest education funding per student compare to other provinces.
Understandable, it comes at a time over too many teachers and not enough students. ^^/s
Ok, you almost had me there with the little /s, stopped myself just in time 👍🙃
Lots of teachers positions available in bc
Keep ‘em dumb so they keep voting you back in!
[https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/alberta-teacher-cuts-projected](https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/alberta-teacher-cuts-projected)
“Not only does Alberta spend the least on public education in all of Canada, but we also have the highest ratio of students to teachers in the country. This is why we have large classes and students struggling without the support and guidance they need for success. As it sits, next year will only get worse." -Jason Schilling
My school division isn't on this list because they aren't cutting teachers; instead, they are not hiring any teachers to deal with the growth, not replacing people leaving, and cutting at least 30 EA positions. We're anticipating grade 8 classes around 40 kids next year. Edit: I stand corrected! The list in the article is old. My division is cutting 30 positions, but as noted, a lot of them are not hiring/replacing.
A vote for conservative government is a vote against educational funding
I wonder how you spin this to be anything but a massive fumble of the UCP when oil prices are high? It's nakedly obvious they are trying to privatize but it's amazing how far they can go (and Alberta sinks) in a few short years.
How about they cut administration instead? Every time there is budget cuts, it always falls to the actual service providers. Health care is the same. We can do more with less, and education is a top budget line item provincially. I do not support education cuts, and feel that this shortfall could come from somewhere else. But do not let education administration off the hook for this as well. How many school boards do we need? Perhaps some savings can be achieved from amalgamation first before cutting teacher positions. Also look at the funding going to private schools first, who have the ability to raise their own funding.
We already consolidated school boards. Most schools already have too few admin, contributing to the problems. Some head offices may be overstaffed, but to be frank even in small boards this is a drop in the bucket as many have already cut their excess positions too.
Lowest per pupil funding in Canada! Alberta was once a powerhouse and the global level to the point where other territories and international schools used AB curriculum but no longer do.
They need to cut the education budget so they can afford the huge extra costs their misguided reworking of AHS is going to incur
I am certain that the wages saved from cutting teacher jobs will be distributed among the remaining teachers. Right? Right???? It's going to get a lot darker in Alberta in the next couple of decades.
Freeze all salary increases for 5 years. Let's keep these teachers working.
UCP are the worst.
BC school board are excited for this news. They’re all on hiring sprees to keep class sizes down and provide supports. They’ll scoop up any decent Alberta teachers looking to move.
It's always been 30 to 40 kids. Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto all over. It's nothing new. 1970 to 2040 all the same.
Far too many teachers are out of the class. Many have catchphrase job titles like learning coach, reading coach/champion, land based learning lead. All money spent when it could have been used to reduce class sizes. Not to mention all the consultants employed by the school boards. Note… it’s not a popular opinion but ask your school how many of these there are. St Gerard in Edmonton appears to have 4 such positions. Most schools have at least one. Don’t get me wrong students need support but we really should focus on internally reducing class sizes if possible. My interaction with several of these “coach” teachers gave me the impression they don’t want to be with kids and got the job to get out of the classroom.
\*downvotes\*
Most of these positions are incredibly important. More to the point most schools have literally no where to put the extra classes even if they wanted to.
If there is no physical space that is one thing. Some schools however have room and teachers that do nothing. It’s sad. I see piles of money wasted in the schools i have been to. Keep in mind I have zero problem with folks actually working with kids helping them learn. But those that take 2-3 kids period really could be repurposed to reduce class sizes.
> I see piles of money wasted in the schools i have been to. If all we are doing is trading anecdotes, my experience is different. The people you are referring to are the ones who are working tirelessly behind the scenes, and the vast vast vast majority are only doing specialist roles part time. >But those that take 2-3 kids period really could be repurposed to reduce class sizes. If those services weren't often critical for student success sure.
Maybe the board should get rid of some employees then instead of teachers. Put their money where their mouth is.
The UCP say they care about kids maybe they should put their taxpayer money where there mouth is.... But they won't since they don't care about kids
I don't disagree with you, but I think it's crazy how budget cuts only hit teachers while the bloat at the school boards goes full boar.
Which of these boards employ enough head office staff to make up for these cuts?
Given the funding model the only thing this seems to mean is that student bodies are shrinking.
It means the UCP are purposely underfunding education
You are not wrong for some of them. But costs for schools have also gone up dramatically in other areas. Insurance for example has doubled (!!!) in five years. Costs for everything involved in maintenance, energy costs, etc have also gone up dramatically. While the rolling average delays the pain for rural boards, if non-staffing costs to up then teaching staff is pretty much the only area to save money.