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Shelley Svidal
ATA News Staff
While government intends to honour the terms of its November 2007 memorandum of agreement with the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), there will be little money left in its coffers for salary increases beyond September 1, 2011.
On May 22, Minister of Education Dave Hancock appeared to take a line from the children’s picture book
Max’s Dragon Shirt, by Rosemary Wells, in his remarks to delegates attending the ATA’s 2010 Annual Representative Assembly in Calgary. The book ends with the title character’s proclaiming “No money left!” after securing his prized ice-cream-stained dragon shirt on a shopping trip with his sister, ostensibly to buy a new pair of pants.
Hancock emphasized that government is committed to funding the final two years of the five-year agreement. “However, it may take more than the time remaining in the agreement to do so,” he said.
To that end, Hancock has asked school boards to draw on their $400 million in operating reserves or to run short-term deficits in order to avoid teacher layoffs. “I know some boards are contemplating layoffs,” he acknowledged, “but I can assure you I am encouraging them in the strongest possible terms not to take this step—to look at what the long term requires. And in the longer term, over the next five years, we’re going to need all of our teachers. Laying off teachers in the short term is an exercise in balancing the budget, but it does not meet the needs of students today, or into the future.”
Indeed, a growing student population means that Alberta will need more, not fewer, teachers in the future, he said. “We will face a growing shortage of teachers by 2012/13 if we do not bring in young, new talent. And we need to learn from, and reap the benefits of, the teachers who are retiring.”
Hancock suggested that Alberta teachers are the best-paid teachers in Canada, averaging $78,700 in salary and $85,000 in total compensation, and that their salary increases over the last three years have far exceeded those of most Albertans.
“When we made the five-year agreement, our objective in using the average weekly earnings measure was to make sure that teachers’ salaries kept pace with increases in the rest of the province. The sentiment was that people being paid from the public purse should neither lead nor lag other salary increases,” he said.
“No one was expecting the kind of economic turmoil that we’ve been through over the past 18 months. With two substantial salary increases at a time when many Albertans have seen their income decrease, or indeed have lost their jobs, and many others [are] struggling to make ends meet, I think it’s fair to say that teachers have done very well.”
Hancock insisted that government simply cannot afford to sustain those increases beyond September 1, 2011. “Further salary increases after the next two years will put us in a fiscally untenable position based on the projections we have now,” he said. “The choice that will be forced on us will be either to have the same number of well-paid teachers or fewer, better-paid teachers. It serves no one’s purpose to have fewer teachers.”
Pointing to engagement, accomplishment, value, empowerment and professional development as key components of job satisfaction, Hancock suggested that “money only goes so far in making a teaching career—in fact, any career worthwhile. . . . With great starting salaries, progressive salary increases and excellent pensions, I think we’ve gone as far as we can with money. A better-paid teacher is not necessarily a better teacher. What I’m really interested in is making sure there’s enough money to fund the things that really improve teaching effectiveness.”
Improving teaching effectiveness means focusing on the value of teachers as professionals, preservice education, teacher induction and professional development—“those things that truly support and improve professional practice,” Hancock said. Excellence in teaching is at the core of an excellent education system, and Alberta’s education system must retain its position as one of the top 25 systems in the world.
Hancock credited the memorandum of agreement for giving government time to move forward on other fronts, such as Inspiring Education: A Dialogue with Albertans and Setting the Direction for Special Education in Alberta, whose reports will be released June 2 and June 11, respectively. “To enable us to remain focused on this important work, I want to make sure that negotiations stay off the table—that . . . we deal with the issues of the day, but we focus on the future,” he said.
The full text of Hancock’s remarks is available on his blog at
www.davehancock.ab.ca.
