October 6 - So it Begins - The Alberta Teacher Strike

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by Point Blank

“Maybe if we had a class that has moderate complexity, like four students with mild to moderate needs or English as an additional language, we should attach an educational assistant to that class.”

A quote from our very own Danielle Smith. Who’s clearly never been in a public classroom.

I want to be clear that every class I’ve ever taught has been a blast. But I’ve taught 75% EAL classrooms for years with no EA support. You go to almost any classrooms in the NE and it’ll be way more complex than what Smith has described with NO EA support. Heck, even a Science 14 class in the SW is over 66% IPP ranging from mild to severe learning needs, with no EA support.

I have a colleague who is teaching math 14 with 35 students. Those are high needs, high behavioural classes in large teenage bodies. I would love for her to sit in one of those classrooms.

Lol 4 students with EAL or special needs. You'd need an EA in every classroom in the province.

[Fuzz]

Wait, hold on. Are y'all suggesting Danielle Smith has no idea what she is talking about?

[Slanter]

Originally Posted by Point Blank

“Maybe if we had a class that has moderate complexity, like four students with mild to moderate needs or English as an additional language, we should attach an educational assistant to that class.”

A quote from our very own Danielle Smith. Who’s clearly never been in a public classroom.

I want to be clear that every class I’ve ever taught has been a blast. But I’ve taught 75% EAL classrooms for years with no EA support. You go to almost any classrooms in the NE and it’ll be way more complex than what Smith has described with NO EA support. Heck, even a Science 14 class in the SW is over 66% IPP ranging from mild to severe learning needs, with no EA support.

I have a colleague who is teaching math 14 with 35 students. Those are high needs, high behavioural classes in large teenage bodies. I would love for her to sit in one of those classrooms.

Where did you get that quote from?

(genuinely curious, that's absolutely unhinged).

[puffnstuff]

Here is some of her word salads today

https://bsky.app/profile/thebreakdow.../3m3bd4lt6pc2k

https://bsky.app/profile/thebreakdow.../3m3bcgpv4gc2k

[Looch City]

What alternative world is this lunatic living in?

[Point Blank]

Originally Posted by Slanter

Where did you get that quote from?

(genuinely curious, that's absolutely unhinged).

If you haven’t checked it out already, it’s in the second link from puffnstuff

She says classroom size caps are too difficult to monitor. So difficult that Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only provinces in Canada that haven’t figured it out. Proposes a complexity cap as a possibility, which is somehow the second most stupid thing I’ve heard from her this evening.

How is a complexity cap going to be any easier to monitor than a straight classroom cap? What the ####?

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Wait, hold on. Are y'all suggesting Danielle Smith has no idea what she is talking about?

She probably has a lot of friends who are teachers, who are always telling her how easy their part-time job for full-time salary is.

[indes]

Danielle Smith is a ####ing clown. Unbelievable how many people voted for this #### show. Too hard to monitor - just like its too hard to know for sure what class sizes are eh Marlaina?

[Hot_Flatus]

The private system conveniently enjoys national average per student education funding in AB based on the ~50k students accessing across the province. Odd position that taxpayers need to pay for a publicly subsidized, private education when all other provinces can deliver that level of funding in the public system directly. Equally strange that the UCP only feels that this type of funding is important for the rich.

You can obviously free up a lot of money to improve the public system in a hurry by making a pretty obvious choice. Cut this funding! The majority of these private school families will absorb the tuition increases anyway, and if they don't, come enjoy a better public system!

[Fuzz]

So the government is so ####ing stingy they can't find $500 million a year to improve education in this province?


A 1% PST would bring in around $2 billion a year.


We can't afford stuff because our government does not want to be able to afford stuff, because it would mean abandoning their "principles".

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

So the government is so ####ing stingy they can't find $500 million a year to improve education in this province?


A 1% PST would bring in around $2 billion a year.


We can't afford stuff because our government does not want to be able to afford stuff, because it would mean abandoning their "principles".

This has nothing to do with a PST though. That is an entirely different argument and one that should be looked at separately from any public services or collective bargaining. It is already bananas that teachers are being forced to bargain with the province to simply hire the required number of teachers to teach and assistants to fill gaps.

The UCP has the money to increase funding already (and lots of it) and is choosing to put it elsewhere, or as we are learning, divert much of it to private schools that will do their bidding implicitly or lose that funding while serving only the well to do's of the province.

Same thing is going to happen to healthcare with for profit providers.

[the-rasta-masta]

Do private schools receive public funding in other provinces? I'm curious if this is unique or the norm.

[puffnstuff]

That coal company settlement money has to come from somewhere... so **** them kids

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

This has nothing to do with a PST though. That is an entirely different argument and one that should be looked at separately from any public services or collective bargaining. It is already bananas that teachers are being forced to bargain with the province to simply hire the required number of teachers to teach and assistants to fill gaps.

The UCP has the money to increase funding already (and lots of it) and is choosing to put it elsewhere, or as we are learning, divert much of it to private schools that will do their bidding implicitly or lose that funding while serving only the well to do's of the province.

Same thing is going to happen to healthcare with for profit providers.

I'm just saying there are lots of sources if they choose to. They just dumped $2.5 billion into the Heritage savings account. That they don't choose to is telling of their priorities. Public education is not one of them.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

The private system conveniently enjoys national average per student education funding in AB based on the ~50k students accessing across the province. Odd position that taxpayers need to pay for a publicly subsidized, private education when all other provinces can deliver that level of funding in the public system directly. Equally strange that the UCP only feels that this type of funding is important for the rich.

You can obviously free up a lot of money to improve the public system in a hurry by making a pretty obvious choice. Cut this funding! The majority of these private school families will absorb the tuition increases anyway, and if they don't, come enjoy a better public system!

Alberta per student funding is $11,464.

The national average is $13,692. (The highest in Canada is Quebec at $16,169).

There are approximately 700,000 public school students in Alberta. To bring us up to the national average of $13,692 - $2,228 more per student - would cost $1.56B per year.

$500mm in funding diverted back to the public system would mean just $714 per student.

The next lowest funding per student is in New Brunswick, at $12,324; $860 more per student than Alberta.

I'm not sure how it all breaks down, but according the ATA, teacher salaries account for $8,202 per student, which is almost $1,600 less than the national average. This means that to reach the national average of an additional $1600 in teacher salaries per student would cost $1.12B annually.

Private school funding is being used scapegoat to pit parents against one another, but even diverting all of the funding isn't sufficient to make a meaningful difference in the quality of public schools. Alberta students (all of them) deserve better and anyone that's been paying attention should know that the funding is (or should be) available if it weren't for any number of idiotic UCP accounting shenanigans and policies.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by puffnstuff

That coal company settlement money has to come from somewhere... so **** them kids

Huh?

[fotze2]

nm

[indes]

Originally Posted by you&me

Alberta per student funding is $11,464.

The national average is $13,692. (The highest in Canada is Quebec at $16,169).

There are approximately 700,000 public school students in Alberta. To bring us up to the national average of $13,692 - $2,228 more per student - would cost $1.56B per year.

$500mm in funding diverted back to the public system would mean just $714 per student.

The next lowest funding per student is in New Brunswick, at $12,324; $860 more per student than Alberta.

I'm not sure how it all breaks down, but according the ATA, teacher salaries account for $8,202 per student, which is almost $1,600 less than the national average. This means that to reach the national average of an additional $1600 in teacher salaries per student would cost $1.12B annually.

Private school funding is being used scapegoat to pit parents against one another, but even diverting all of the funding isn't sufficient to make a meaningful difference in the quality of public schools. Alberta students (all of them) deserve better and anyone that's been paying attention should know that the funding is (or should be) available if it weren't for any number of idiotic UCP accounting shenanigans and policies.

Who would want to educate our youth when you could buy imaginary pipelines instead! If they were educated they would be pissed off, it's a win win really.

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

The private system conveniently enjoys national average per student education funding in AB based on the ~50k students accessing across the province. Odd position that taxpayers need to pay for a publicly subsidized, private education when all other provinces can deliver that level of funding in the public system directly. Equally strange that the UCP only feels that this type of funding is important for the rich.

You can obviously free up a lot of money to improve the public system in a hurry by making a pretty obvious choice. Cut this funding! The majority of these private school families will absorb the tuition increases anyway, and if they don't, come enjoy a better public system!

The whole public-partially-funding-private argument seems to be a bit of a scapegoat bogeyman.

I think having equivocal private/public per student funding is reasonable. Its not as though the parents of private students aren't paying taxes, in fact based on demographic, they are paying more taxes per household. Is it unfair if some of their taxes are equally allocated to their own child's education?

It's no secret that having a parallel private system decants the strain on limited public ressources. Further to the latter, I'd wager that the required increase in private school fees ensuing from subtracting all public subsidization, would force a majority of private students back into public schools as the increased cost crossess a major threshold (an increase of >12k$ after tax income is still alot for most in the top 25th percentile). Suddenly dumping 20000+ students back into the public system would be a huge logistical problem on top of the prexisting over crowding etc. Would this increased public cost really offset much of the savings? How much surplus are you actually adding back into the buget if you just converted the private subsidy into public school cost? And if there are any meaningful savings, would those actually be passed on to fund the public system? With this government you might just end up back at the status quo.

[NuclearFart]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Huh?

Evolve power and the rest of the aussie crew.