The spring sitting of the legislature began on February 24 and is scheduled to run until May 14, with constituency weeks occurring in both March and April. Here is a summary of the education-related discussions that took place in question period during the week of February 24.
Education Funding, February 26
Tara Sawyer (UCP MLA for Olds–Didsbury–Three Hills) raised concerns about Alberta’s rapid student population growth—over 80,000 new students in three years—and asked Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides how Budget 2026 addresses the pressure on classrooms. In response, Nicolaides highlighted a seven per cent increase in operating expenses ($722 million), enough to hire over 1,600 teachers and hundreds of educational assistants. Sawyer followed up with a question on classroom complexity, and Nicolaides noted that $355 million is budgeted specifically to target that issue. He also pointed to a 63 per cent increase to the literacy and numeracy support grant. Sawyer’s final question related to broader investments. In his response, Nicolaides characterized the budget as a historic record, citing praise from the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s president on the budgeted amount and contrasting the investment with NDP-era education spending.
School Class Size and Complexity, February 26
Amanda Chapman (NDP MLA for Calgary-Beddington) opened by challenging the use of class size averages, arguing they mask significant inequality across Alberta’s classrooms. Nicolaides defended the government’s data collection as the most comprehensive in the province’s history, noting it informed the deployment of classroom complexity teams. Chapman followed up by citing two schools in her riding where class sizes of 30–31 were the norm and some reached as high as 49, asking whether Nicolaides considered that acceptable. Nicolaides responded with provincial statistics, noting an average of 25 students per classroom, with fewer than one per cent of classrooms exceeding 40 students. He acknowledged that more work remains. In her final question, Chapman pointed to two specific schools in her riding where complexity rates are extremely high, but which would receive no additional resources from the new complexity teams. Nicolaides responded by contrasting the government’s record with that of the NDP. He stated that 171 complexity teams would go to the Calgary metro area and 143 to the Edmonton region, framing this work as a significant improvement over what he characterized as zero NDP action on the issue.
