LYTLE: Strike first, ask later: Alberta’s teachers gamble with public trust

The Alberta Department of Education recently revised the funding formula for schools under its control. Beginning in March 2025, the school funding allocation for new school years is based on the current enrollment numbers weighted by 30% and the estimated numbers for the new year weighted by 70%. This two-year rolling average estimate better accounts for rapid enrollment changes either up or down within school districts.Rather than fix the education budget in the fall when classroom numbers are known, the schools have an anticipated budget based on projections, allowing them greater planning certainty. The April 2025 budget for Alberta education for the 2025/26 school year is $9.9 billion, which includes money to hire 4,000 additional teachers over three years. According to the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), the budget allocation for teacher salaries is 72% of the total budget ($8,202 / $11,464; February 2025 per student numbers). This value includes the effect of teacher salary, student/teacher ratios, and administrative overhead..EDITORIAL: Suddenly, the Left doesn’t think cancel culture is funny anymore.The ATA is claiming that teachers are poorly compensated based on these numbers, and more needs to be done to reduce the student/teacher ratios. And that is why they have given strike notice. But what are teacher salaries in Alberta relative to other provinces in Canada? A Canadian immigration consulting firm rates Alberta as the number one destination for teachers and has this to say, “Alberta continues to be a leading province for teachers, offering among the highest teacher salaries in the country, strong benefits packages, growing student population in urban centers, and robust professional development opportunities.”.That is interesting but not particularly authoritative. According to a BC Teachers Federation report, in 2018, Alberta had the highest teacher salaries of the ten provinces (the territories had higher salaries for obvious reasons). A 2021 survey found Alberta teachers still on the top rung. In a 2023 study, Ontario was eroding the Alberta advantage. There are many variables in salary comparisons, including how fast teachers can move up the pay scale and the relative benefit packages, so this analytical summary is not complete. However, the consistency of Alberta’s ranking in Canada suggests that things are not exactly at an economic tipping point for Alberta’s teachers.Regarding student/teacher ratios, some years ago I made a presentation to the Calgary Board of Education pointing out that, using their numbers, while teacher/pupil ratios were on the high side, if 50% of the non-administrative teacher overhead was brought back into the classroom, the student/teacher ratios were comfortably within appropriate ranges. Unfortunately, my microphone was cut off before I could finish the presentation..EDITORIAL: Canada's catch-and-release justice system is failing you.Back to the current issue of striking teachers. Unions exist to squeeze more benefits from employers, and so I am not unhappy with Alberta teachers going on strike. You get nothing if you don’t ask or negotiate. The teachers are negotiating. That is how the system works.However, there is an interested third party in all of this — the parents. Their costs of education are about to dramatically increase even as the province will save a lot of money. Who is going to look after the kids when both parents work? Who is going to work off the energy of unhappy children? Are children to lose another year of school following the debacle of the COVID-19 shutdowns?.If I were a parent, I would demand that the Alberta government help me out by permanently sending the per-pupil funding allotment to the parents of each student and allow them to look for an alternative educational option for their children during the strike. That will keep the kids educated and offset the parents’ unwanted costs.The downside to this is that parents might decide that these educational alternatives are better and so don’t return their kids to the public education system when the strike is over. I don’t suppose these non-returners will represent more than about 20% of the total enrollment. No doubt, after the strike, the budget allocations will have to be recalculated, and perhaps some of the public school teachers will have to be laid off. That is certainly a risk..CARPAY: Alberta proposes a step towards bigger government.As much as I am a fan of collective bargaining, such bargaining only makes sense when everyone has skin in the game. There is no rule that teachers get to strike, throw the lives of hundreds of thousands of parents into chaos, and not add some risk to their own careers. If you play the game, you take your chances.

LYTLE: Strike first, ask later: Alberta’s teachers gamble with public trust

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