The Alberta Lecturers’ Affiliation (ATA) is launching a brand new promoting marketing campaign aimed toward highlighting the truth that Alberta has the lowest-funded public training system within the nation.
Albertans will start seeing and listening to the brand new “Cease the Excuses” marketing campaign on tv, radio, billboard, print, and on-line ads.
“Regardless of having the richest financial system within the nation, Alberta has the poorest public training system. There is no such thing as a excuse for this. Alberta college students deserve higher,” stated ATA president Jason Schilling.
The ATA claims the general public training system has seen “persistent underfunding,” which has led to pupil development outpacing the instructor inhabitants by a ratio of simply over two-to-one.
It provides the expansion price is equal to having 6,000 fewer lecturers if instructor development saved tempo with pupil development.
“Think about if we lower 6,000 lecturers from the college system in sooner or later. Packages can be slashed, hundreds of courses can be mixed and helps for college kids would disappear. Properly, that’s what has occurred in our colleges not in a single day, however step by step and persistently over 15 years,” Schilling stated.
Final month, the ATA pointed to new information launched by Statistics Canada that confirmed Alberta was spending on common $11,601 per pupil, in comparison with different provinces which averaged $13,332.
READ MORE: Alberta spends the least on public training amongst provinces: StatsCan
CityNews reached out to the province, which stated the brand new price range plans to extend funding.
“In Finances 2024, we elevated funding by 4.4% per cent, for a file funding of virtually $9.3 billion this yr, together with greater than $1.2 billion over three years particularly to deal with enrolment development,” stated Schooling Minister Demetrios Nicolaides in a press release.
“This funding could also be used to rent as much as 3,100 extra lecturers and classroom help workers, so faculty authorities can handle class sizes and the rising variety of college students. $44 million can be supplied in 2024-25 to assist faculty authorities help the varied wants of scholars and handle classroom complexity. That is a part of the greater than $1.5 billion for Studying Help funding to satisfy college students’ specialised wants.”
READ MORE: Alberta pupil advocacy group calls on province to prioritize Okay-12 college students in Finances 2024
The ATA in the meantime says, to maintain up with the nationwide common, Alberta faculty boards would wish at the very least a 13 per cent improve in funding.
The ATA says their marketing campaign can be funded by lecturers, and notes Albertans can be taught extra in regards to the “underfunding” by visiting their web site.
