Earlier this month, the Alberta Teachers’ Association published a media release on their website. In it, they outlined how more than a third of the province’s 61 school boards (public, Catholic, and francophone) are set to lay off teachers.
The ATA analyzed budgets submitted by the school boards to the education minister, Demetrios Nicolaides, who has to approve each one.
In their analysis, the ATA found that at least 22 of the school boards plan to not only not hire more teachers but actually reduce the number they already have, with one school board planning to layoff nearly 100 teachers.
| School board | Proposed 2024–25 reduction |
|---|---|
| Red Deer Catholic | 90.6 |
| Sturgeon | 43.2 |
| Elk Island Public | 12.2 |
| Medicine Hat Public | 11.8 |
| Buffalo Trail | 11.4 |
| St Paul | 11 |
| Foothills | 10.8 |
| Aspen View | 10.4 |
| Wetaskiwin | 8.7 |
| Battle River | 8.6 |
| St Albert Public | 6 |
| Peace Wapiti | 5.3 |
| Grasslands | 4.2 |
| Pembina Hills | 4.1 |
| FrancoSud | 4 |
| Black Gold | 4 |
| Wild Rose | 3.3 |
| Fort Vermilion | 2.7 |
| High Prairie | 2.5 |
| Chinook’s Edge | 2 |
| Northern Gateway | 1 |
| Westwind | 0.5 |
| Total | 258.3 |
That’s over 250 teachers who will lose their jobs heading into the new school year, unless the education minister plans to do something about it.
In a written statement to the ATA, Nicolaides claimed that “over the next three years, [the provincial government has] planned to invest more than $1.2 billion to address classroom complexity”.
What he fails to mention in that, however, is that the funding rate won’t actually increase, so the total funding increase is only because of a larger student population, not because the government believes that the schools should have more money per student.
In fact, according to the ATA, “provincial grant rates will remain static for the next school year”. Plus, when we account for both inflation and enrolment growth, according to ATA president, Jason Schilling, “per-pupil education spending will be down 13% provincewide, compared to 2019.”
The ATA claims that according to school jurisdiction funding profiles from Alberta Education, 13 school divisions face an actual funding cut for 2024–2025. On top of that, 10 others will receive and increase of under 1%, which, of course, won’t be enough to cover inflation and enrolment growth.
On that note, the ATA calculated that board funding throughout the province will increase 3.4% in the next school year, yet enrolment is projected to increase 3.6%.
Also in his statement to the ATA, Nicolaides promised that the funding I mentioned earlier “will go directly to hiring 3,000 more teachers and other educational staff”.
Yet, the ATA predicts that over the next two years, the school system will see a net increase of 50,000 students (even when you account for students graduating out of the system).
That’s more than 15 students per new hire. And remember, that’s not just 3,000 new teachers—that number includes other educational staff—so the teacher–student gap might end up being even larger.
Even if it was just teachers, 16 students is large enough for a new class, let alone dealing with the overcrowding already in provincial classrooms.
Part of that overcrowding is spatial. The Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks, for example, is already at 120% capacity, and some of the schools under the stewardship of the Calgary Board of Education are also approaching 120% capacity.
