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Originally Posted by ma-skis.com
I'm thinking that Alberta, long term, would be best served by an education system that remained consistent in terms of standards and expectations. Having a system that ebbed and flowed with the boom and bust nature of Alberta's economy would result in very uneven performance depending on the year of graduation or enrolment.
Teachers shouldn't boom in boom times, and they shouldn't bust in bust times. What benefit would be served by allowing education to rise and fall with the economic climate?
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But we've already seen that when Alberta booms, the salary of teachers takes a big jump. They're the highest paid teachers in Canada. So are you saying we should go back and redress that 'boom' with salary cuts, or that we should accept a model where teachers' pay spikes when Alberta booms, and stays steady when it busts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
As a professional in education, I would respond to a reduction in teacher salary as a result of recession by leaving Alberta and working somewhere else when times are bad. There are teaching jobs all over the world, so why hang around in Alberta if the compensation stops matching the job and the cost of living? I don't know how many would respond the same way as I would, but I hardly think Calgarians suffering through a recession would be pleased to also deal with the quality of education for their children going down due to quality teachers leaving the province.
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Where would you go? Teachers are paid less in England, Australia, Germany, Japan, and the cost of living is no lower there. Cost of living is cheaper in many American cities, I suppose, but teachers get paid much less in those place.
I guess what I'm asking is why should we believe that salary cuts would affect the quality of education in Alberta, when there are many examples of countries with education systems as strong as Canada's, where teachers get paid less - often much less - and they have a cost of living as high or higher than Alberta.