Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling concluded a Monday press conference without providing specific numbers on what would end the provincewide teachers’ strike.
I support the stance of the Alberta government which represents Alberta taxpayers. Everyone has a tougher time surviving today so teachers should be happy with what they are offered because not everyone gets a pay raise. If the union wants 5000 more teachers, that means the union will be collecting more money for the union from the dues of these additional teachers, hopefully this is not the objective of this union.
The ATA is not listening to teachers either. Teachers want our classrooms to be manageable and supported by an EA. We have so many complex students who take up so much of our time and energy. I am talking about students who shouldn’t be in regular classrooms because they are violent, disruptive, special needs requiring extra support etc. Add to that a huge group of students who don’t speak English. Once again no support given. Our workloads are massive with paperwork and planning with very little resources given to us. No math textbooks or workbooks etc. Reports many times a year required for half the students in our classes on top of regular marking etc. No time allocated for us to complete this.
This strike is not truly for classroom caps or pay increase as ATA can not provide concrete demands for negotiations. Just do the math on the class size as that is 14 students per teacher (700,000/51,000). If we take out Administration, part-time and EAs let's say that is 37,000 full-time teachers with lets say 825,000 students that is 22 students per class/teacher currently. Now add 3,000 new teachers, that takes the class down to 21 students per class/teacher. Now if we did 700,000 students with 51,000+4,500 new teachers & EAs it would take it down to 12.6 students/teacher. Also these teachers will be the highest paid in western Canada. The nurses got a 12% raise and accepted it. Teachers are guaranteed a pension...this does not happen in the private sector. ATA can afford expensive retreats yet not pay teacher strike pay?!?! This is no longer on issues especially if you cannot detail out exactly what you want, but on greed and filling pockets. Help it make sense if I am completely wrong here.
I support the stance of the Alberta government which represents Alberta taxpayers. Everyone has a tougher time surviving today so teachers should be happy with what they are offered because not everyone gets a pay raise. If the union wants 5000 more teachers, that means the union will be collecting more money for the union from the dues of these additional teachers, hopefully this is not the objective of this union.
The ATA is not listening to teachers either. Teachers want our classrooms to be manageable and supported by an EA. We have so many complex students who take up so much of our time and energy. I am talking about students who shouldn’t be in regular classrooms because they are violent, disruptive, special needs requiring extra support etc. Add to that a huge group of students who don’t speak English. Once again no support given. Our workloads are massive with paperwork and planning with very little resources given to us. No math textbooks or workbooks etc. Reports many times a year required for half the students in our classes on top of regular marking etc. No time allocated for us to complete this.
This strike is not truly for classroom caps or pay increase as ATA can not provide concrete demands for negotiations. Just do the math on the class size as that is 14 students per teacher (700,000/51,000). If we take out Administration, part-time and EAs let's say that is 37,000 full-time teachers with lets say 825,000 students that is 22 students per class/teacher currently. Now add 3,000 new teachers, that takes the class down to 21 students per class/teacher. Now if we did 700,000 students with 51,000+4,500 new teachers & EAs it would take it down to 12.6 students/teacher. Also these teachers will be the highest paid in western Canada. The nurses got a 12% raise and accepted it. Teachers are guaranteed a pension...this does not happen in the private sector. ATA can afford expensive retreats yet not pay teacher strike pay?!?! This is no longer on issues especially if you cannot detail out exactly what you want, but on greed and filling pockets. Help it make sense if I am completely wrong here.
Don't blame the UPC government for the education problem in Alberta and every other province I suspect!!!! check out this link and learn the truth! pat https://open.substack.com/pub/clint67/p/built-to-fail?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web