Solidarity with Sask Teachers

[Eric Vail]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

At least Alberta is towards the top of the metric for average salaries (teachers and support/admin staff) based on those same data tables from Statistics Canada:

When they put teachers, support staff and admin in a bucket together, it is tough to understand what it means. Support staff make far less than the other two groups, so a province that hires the fewest teacher assistants will have a higher spot on the rankings.

It doesn't really tell who is the best paid.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Eric Vail

When they put teachers, support staff and admin in a bucket together, it is tough to understand what it means. Support staff make far less than the other two groups, so a province that hires the fewest teacher assistants will have a higher spot on the rankings.

It doesn't really tell who is the best paid.

By that same standard, we don't really know what the chart you posted about students per employee tells us. Maybe Alberta is very lean on administrative/support staff while other provinces are top heavy and those student counts per employee are skewed and misleading.

[Azure]

Aren't there studies showing that for every $1 you spend on education, you get $2 back in economic return?

[Eric Vail]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

By that same standard, we don't really know what the chart you posted about students per employee tells us. Maybe Alberta is very lean on administrative/support staff while other provinces are top heavy and those student counts per employee are skewed and misleading.

But we know Alberta class sizes are larger than other provinces which is a product of the low per student funding. We know the UCP stopped collecting class size data because they wanted to substantially raise them. We also know there are far fewer support staff in place than there were a decade ago.

[Whynotnow]

Originally Posted by Azure

Aren't there studies showing that for every $1 you spend on education, you get $2 back in economic return?

Tha sounds like it makes sense but perhaps the UCP also have a study that says for every $1 spent on education you create 2 NDP voters. I kid(sort of)

[kipperiggy]

Binding arbitration results are in, and classroom complexity will be in the next contract. Wonder how it impacts any other ongoing negotiations in the education sector.

https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/1.7474131

[Shazam]

Are large class sizes bad?

In South Korea, classes are large so that kids have a better chance of making friends.

At my youngest's daughter's high school, they absolutely stream students now. The term is "cohorting".

But the fact is, the vast majority of kids are in the mushy middle.

Alberta graduates still get a 2% bump on their grades for admittance into BC universities.

Other Canadian universities actively recruit Albertan students. They want Alberta students. It's why the U of A and U of C provide early admittance.

[WideReceiver]

I come from a family of teachers. Yes large classes are bad. Try teaching 35 grade 1s.

[GomerPile]

Does anyone else feel like the whole current school system is built to thrive in the 1960’s and the single income family? I don’t think the model has changed as the demands of society has changed. I started going to school in the 80’s and I remember lots of parents helping once a week in classrooms, and an active volunteer group for extra curricular activities and field trips. School seems like it was more of a community effort “back in the day” and didn’t just fall on the teachers. There is so few single income families now, kids are being “raised” by daycares, teachers, before and after school care. I’m not sure how a parent can really have a handle on their kids mental health or behaviour when they're both working all the time and don’t live near a grandparent. With current class sizes they way they are, I don’t see a path for teachers success, but maybe I don’t see more teachers as a path to success either…?

Just some pondering from a non kid having, non union liking(been in three), business owner.

[Party Elephant]

Originally Posted by WideReceiver

I come from a family of teachers. Yes large classes are bad. Try teaching 35 grade 1s.

Yeah like, there's a reason the expensive private schools boast small classes as a benefit.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by GomerPile

Does anyone else feel like the whole current school system is built to thrive in the 1960’s and the single income family? I don’t think the model has changed as the demands of society has changed. I started going to school in the 80’s and I remember lots of parents helping once a week in classrooms, and an active volunteer group for extra curricular activities and field trips. School seems like it was more of a community effort “back in the day” and didn’t just fall on the teachers. There is so few single income families now, kids are being “raised” by daycares, teachers, before and after school care. I’m not sure how a parent can really have a handle on their kids mental health or behaviour when they're both working all the time and don’t live near a grandparent. With current class sizes they way they are, I don’t see a path for teachers success, but maybe I don’t see more teachers as a path to success either…?

Just some pondering from a non kid having, non union liking(been in three), business owner.

You know it’s funny, as the overall percentage of the workforce that was unionized declined so did the overall percentage of single income households.

Perhaps you should keep more of an open mind on things that you criticize for your own personal gain and try to see how they can actually provide a net benefit to help address other problems you have issues with. Just a thought.

[GomerPile]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

You know it’s funny, as the overall percentage of the workforce that was unionized declined so did the overall percentage of single income households.

Perhaps you should keep more of an open mind on things that you criticize for your own personal gain and try to see how they can actually provide a net benefit to help address other problems you have issues with. Just a thought.

Wasn’t trying to criticize, just posted my pondering that maybe the school model hasn’t changed as much as society has. I didn’t like unions for me, I do see the value of them in certain scenarios. I didn’t find them beneficial for my personal motivation to be a better employee.

Interesting comment about percentage of unionized employees vs single income households. Will dig into that a bit.

I should have also said that I came from a household of two teachers, one was packaged out due to age in the 90’s to make way for the next generation and the other is still very much employed on the public funded Alberta virtual school side.

[kipperiggy]

Originally Posted by GomerPile

Wasn’t trying to criticize, just posted my pondering that maybe the school model hasn’t changed as much as society has. I didn’t like unions for me, I do see the value of them in certain scenarios. I didn’t find them beneficial for my personal motivation to be a better employee.

Interesting comment about percentage of unionized employees vs single income households. Will dig into that a bit.

I should have also said that I came from a household of two teachers, one was packaged out due to age in the 90’s to make way for the next generation and the other is still very much employed on the public funded Alberta virtual school side.

I think you're bang on that the school model is probably outdated. Funding has not kept up, which is why this arbitration deal is a win - $20 million of funding per year to deal with classroom complexities compared to the $0 before. Probably just a drop in the bucket, but it's a start.