The increases in educational staffing promised by the government today will be largely financed by school boards’ internal reserves rather than new funding from the province. This is a short-term approach that does little to address the structural deficiencies in funding that have led to large and growing class sizes and inadequate support for student learning.
“While the spending to restore positions that were lost during the pandemic is welcome news, drawing down school board savings to accomplish this is a temporary stop-gap approach and is not available to every board. It simply cannot be sustained over the long term.
“The greater challenge for the province’s school boards will be finding the dollars they need to respond to the general cost increases that are affecting all of us. I frankly doubt that the funding increase announced today will be adequate.”
Jason Schilling, ATA president
The government also announced plans to fund a modest increase to teacher salaries, which was determined through a mediation process in the spring. Schilling noted that the pay increase still sits well below the level of inflation, which, in Alberta, was running at 7.4 per cent in July alone. After six consecutive years of zero increases and a 0.5 per cent increase in 2022, teacher salaries will eventually rise by a total of 3.75 per cent by September 2023.
Funds available to support student learning are considerably tighter today than ever before. Alberta’s spending on education has fallen considerably compared with other provinces. Data from Statistics Canada’s Financial Information of Elementary and Secondary Schools (FINESS) survey indicates that in 2018/19, the last year for which data is available, Alberta ranked dead last among the provinces in per-student operating expenditures (see attachment).
“Successive Alberta governments have allowed funding for education to erode, forcing teachers, education workers and parents to pick up the slack. We cannot continue to slap band-aids on the cuts and then declare that the problem is solved.
“This is an issue that must be meaningfully addressed by the new premier in October and by the various parties as the province moves toward the general election in May 2023.”
Jason Schilling, ATA president