Education Is
a Right!
- Kevan Hunter -
Teachers are using the Alberta election as an
opportunity to
take to a new level their ongoing battle to provide the right to
education with a guarantee. Teachers are making class size and
classroom composition issues in the election. The Alberta
Teachers' Association (ATA) has stepped up its Class Size Matters
campaign and is also providing information and materials on other
important issues in education. The ATA has produced thousands of
postcards that highlight the issue of unacceptably large
classes.
In its own words, the ATA is a "fiercely non-partisan"
organization. It does not support or oppose any political party
but intervenes politically in and out of elections to advocate
for conditions in education that will allow students to flourish
and meet their full potential. These include the practical
conditions teachers require to do their work in support of their
students.
 Teachers are going door to
door and speaking with their
neighbours about their concerns with the present conditions in
the education system. The refusal of governments to provide the
necessary investments to solve the problem of class sizes
violates the demands not only of students and teachers but of the
entire polity. Based on teachers' door-to-door experience so far, it is
clear that people are concerned about the state of
education and express a sentiment that something must be
done.
For years, chronic underfunding of the education system
has
resulted in deteriorating conditions in schools. When asked what
problems they face in classrooms, teachers overwhelmingly state
that class sizes are the biggest cause for concern. Secondly,
they are seeing an increasing number of students with special
needs being integrated into regular classrooms without the additional
supports they require to be successful. Also of concern is the
fact that wages have been frozen for six of the last seven years,
with a raise of about 2.5 per cent (varying slightly for each
school board) in 2015. When the cost of living is considered,
this means teachers' salaries have been cut by about 7.5 per cent
since 2012.
The 2003 Alberta Commission on Learning (ACOL) report
included guidelines for classroom sizes, which suggested 17 students
for K-3. The ATA reports: "Last school year, 81 per cent of K-3
classes
were larger than the [ACOL]
guidelines and all but five school jurisdictions exceeded the
target set by ACOL. These averages also don't fairly represent
the large number of classes that are significantly larger than
the average. Since 2002, the proportion of core classes with 40
or more students has grown by 600 per cent."
Teachers' actions in this election build on the campaign
launched last year when teachers sent postcards to Members of
the Legislative Assembly informing them of conditions in
classrooms, and posted those images widely on social media as well. The
ATA also declared April 9 a candidate contact blitz day,
encouraging teachers to be in touch with candidates and ask them
how they plan to uphold the right to education by ensuring that
schools have adequate resources to meet the needs of students and
teachers.
  
Another very serious concern is the gaping hole
separating
general high school completion rates in Alberta and those of
Indigenous students. Overall, 80 per cent of students complete
high school within five years, while only 60 per cent of
Indigenous students do so.
The NDP government's policy says it funds education
according
to the increase in population. This means the per capita amount
per student remains the same. The PC government, which was
defeated in 2015, advocated no funding for population increases.
In the NDP's last government budget, the education operations and
maintenance budget was cut, and student transportation remained the
same despite the increase in student numbers, as did the
governance and system administration budget. The NDP budget
contained no funding to meet the claims of teachers who are
moving up the salary grid, and the funding for students with
identified special needs falls far below what school boards
actually allocate. The result has been a shortfall in other
areas leading to further increases in class sizes.
 For example, the Calgary
Board of Education (CBE) states that
it requires an additional $21 million in funding just to maintain
its existing level of service, even without adding more students.
The CBE also points out that government funding in all areas
falls short of what is required. It states that $136 million in
allocated funding goes to support the 21,000 students with
identified special needs, while actual government funding only
accounts for $78 million. Similarly, support targeted at the
29,000 English Language Learners in the CBE totals $31 million,
while government grants in this area total only $23.5
million.
Teachers are discussing why this is the case. Is it true
that
the problem is "lack of money?" Such an argument does not hold
any water because education is not a cost to society. Education
is essential to the functioning of a modern society and adds
immense value. The younger generation must acquire the knowledge
and skills necessary to be active citizens. Investments in
education are realized over and over in the form of value
transferred into the economy and society. This value is embedded
within their students and transferred into the service or goods
they produce when they work.
A problem occurs with the refusal of companies to
realize (pay
for) the value they receive from social programs such as
education and the refusal of governments to force them to do so.
The refusal to realize the value of education within the economy
is responsible for the continued underfunding of education. Far
from contributing to a vibrant economy organized to meet the
needs of the people, the refusal of companies and government to
realize the value of education contributes to the deepening of
the economic crisis and collapse of the living and working
conditions of the people.
Education is a right. This principle of a modern society
forms the basis of the claims of students to have their right to
education guaranteed and the right of teachers to be accorded the
tools and conditions to fulfil this right. Students and teachers
have broad support from the working people to guarantee education
as a right for all. The people are concerned with providing a
bright future for the youth and meeting the needs of society. For
governments to deprive the people and society of this right is to
abdicate their social responsibility and render them unfit to
govern.
Teachers have not abandoned the fight taken up in 2002
to
bring their working conditions and students' learning conditions
up to a level necessary to guarantee education as a right for all
in the twenty-first century. The need is clear for teachers to
strengthen their organization and independent stand in defence of
public education and increased funding for all social programs.
The youth today together with their teachers and all education
workers are determined to build the New. They declare with one
voice that those political forces that refuse to uphold their
social responsibility towards the youth and society will be cast
aside in favour of the New.
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number
13 - April 13, 2019
Article Link:
United
Conservative
Party
Uses
Straw
Men to
Attack Alberta's Curriculum Reform
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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