[John Doe]

Originally Posted by Poster

the problems in the school system are very complex but there are a few areas that can make an immediate impact.

every dollar spent on administration and beaurcracy is a dollar not spent in the classroom on the kids.

other than the obvious answer (politics) there is NO reason for the city of Calgary to carry the expense of two unique school boards and systems. whatever amount of money is spent on this is money not spent in the classroom.

The reason that there are two unique school systems is because it is mandated in the constitution, although this appears to still apply only in Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan.
I agree with you that this shouldn't still be the case anymore in Alberta, but that is a matter for the government and the courts to decide.

start there and there would be more money for real resources.

also, why should a teacher spend their own after tax dollar on teaching supplies? if little Jenny needs a special tool or some other resource, the parents should pay for it and if they dont want to, why should it be the teachers priority?

I don't believe that teachers are responsible for purchasing resources required for specific students. That would indeed be the responsibility of either the parent or the school district. The resources that teachers have to purchase on their own are items such as posters, books (but not required text books), and extra book shelves, desks, tables that the teachers want to have in their class rooms.

i imagine if a principle or school board trustee had to print a report at home, they would expense the printer ink for their home office. why should these elitist self important beuracrats have that perk but the teacher should pay out of their own pocket?

My SO is a principal. She never expenses items like printing ink back through the school district. My wife and I are the ones who subsidize those and other related expenses. She also is required to travel to and back to the school on weekends and evenings when there are any issues with the school whenever some group is using the gymnasium (for free). Again, her expenses and time to do this is covered by us (although to be fair she is usually at the school working most evenings and weekends already).

teachers in alberta make more than enough money, thats not an issue but if i had a choice to pay a teacher more or pay a principle or school board leach, i would give it to the teacher 10 out of 10 times.

My wife was a teacher for more than 20 years before she became a principal. I can tell you that while she worked an enormous amount of time outside of classroom hours as a teacher, she got an increase in salary but is making much less money per hour worked as a principal.

finally, can we do away with the damn fundraisers? seems silly that my kid asks you to buy the fundraiser pizza and your kid asks me to buy the fundraiser turkey!!

The fundraising is required to fund programs and equipment that are not paid for by the government. If you wish these things to be funded, then you should tell your MLA. If you don't think that these things are required, then don't participate.

how about putting the kids to work in the community, starting with keeping the schools clean (bathrooms, halways, snow shovelling etc) perhaps cleaning parks or other civic duties, reducing the overheads of the city so that some of that money can go back to the school system instead of recylcling the same dollar from the parents.

Are you seriously asking the schools to become child labor sweatshops?




I have been around teachers for most of my adult life. I have seen a good number of great teachers and also a lot of "duds", but then again so do all vocations. While teachers do have some wonderful perks to their jobs (lots of time off, good pension, the job itself can be very rewarding), there are also lots of aspects to the job that are not appealing, such as the long hours they are required to work (that they don't get paid for), increasingly difficult duties (often asked to be psychologist, parent, nurse, counselor, etc.), overcrowded classrooms, demanding parents, etc.. I know that I wouldn't have lasted in their jobs as I would have either burnt out or got fired for telling someone to go to **** off. I also know a number of ex-teachers that have left the profession. Everyone of them is making more money than they did as teachers and have much more stress-free lives.

I expect a number of disparaging remarks to this post, but I honestly believe that teachers do not get the respect that they deserve in our society. I further believe that the primary reason for this is because such a high percentage of teachers are women. I suspect that if they were mostly men then they would be respected (and paid) more.