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“Lack of funding is compromising our children’s right to a proper education.” That’s the comment from a parent whose daughter attends school in Chestermere. This and similar comments are being posted daily on Stopthecuts.ca (www.
myalbertaschool.ca), a website where parents, teachers and the public can discuss the fallout from the government’s underfunding of public education.
The website is a component of the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s September 6 to October 9 media campaign asking parents and the public to contact the provincial government and to voice their concerns about cuts to education funding. The ATA, in partnership with the Alberta School Boards Association and the Alberta School Councils’ Association, is running TV, radio and online advertisements to raise awareness about the funding shortfall.
Visitors to the Stopthecuts.ca website can discuss the effect of education cutbacks. They will also be provided with contact information for their MLAs, the education minister, political party leaders and the three remaining candidates vying for leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party.
Featured here are recent submissions to the website. The comments have been edited for content and length.
Funding shortfall compromises public education
My daughter, who is in Grade 8 at St. Gabriel the Archangel School, in Chestermere, has a gym class with 70 students and two teachers. St. Gabriel is a K–12 school, which clearly does not have the room to accommodate the number of students who attend there. The school has one gym to accommodate all grades. St. Gabriel was in line for renovations to accommodate the growing number of junior and senior high students, but due to budget cuts, these projects have been put on the back burner. Our lack of funding is compromising our children’s right to a proper education.
This is madness!
Our best teachers are gone and the ones who remain are underpaid. There are up to 38 kids in a class and not enough textbooks to go around. This is madness!
School needs upgrade
My son just started kindergarten. While he is fortunate to be in a class of only 20 students, his school is old and needs updating. The kindergarten classroom is small and does not have a bathroom for the young students. The school has wonderful staff and students who deserve a quality work and learning environment.
Too many kids, not enough books
Our daughter started Grade 11 this year—she has 39 students in one class and only 18 textbooks. Thanks to all the cuts, many classes do not have teachers’ helpers; kids do not have lockers, desks or hope for a future. These are only some of the problems plaguing our children. I don’t know how they are going to do it. Good luck kids, and don’t be alarmed if the politicians give themselves a raise this year with all that money they saved not educating our children.
Three degrees equals unemployment
I’m one of the many temps laid off in June. I graduated from the University of Alberta in 2010 with eight-plus years of postsecondary education and three degrees (BA, MA and BEd). I’m highly educated and energetic, and I have much to offer our education system. It is baffling to me that I am sitting on the sidelines—as are many of my peers (many of whom hold graduate degrees)—and can’t share the fruits of my labour with Alberta’s students.
Education must come first
Our school has three French immersion classes with 22 children and a strategies class (for kids who have learning difficulties) that is a 4/5/6 split! I applaud the teacher for being willing to prepare for three grades and work with children who require extra learning tools. Is it fair to the kids? No. All our classes are larger than last year. Our teachers will be stretched and some kids may fall through the cracks. I question whether this government even cares about children or education. This government is the new playground bully.
Shocked by larger classes
My husband and I were shocked to see the huge number of students in my daughter’s Grade 3 class this year. The desks are squeezed in cheek by jowl to fit them all in! I feel terrible for the teacher having to deal with this, and worse still for the students who will miss out on the one-on-one time with their teacher. Alberta has got to do a better job of investing in its future or the province won’t have much of a future!
Frustrated in Edmonton!
We chose our child’s school based on the fact that the immersion program was small, 150 students max in the program in a school with amazing programs. Best of both worlds, we thought. To our dismay, we discovered on the first day of classes that there are 42 Grade 10 students, all taking their core classes together. It’s too late to change and too late to do anything but hope for the best.
Substituting and stressed in Calgary
This is my second year as a substitute teacher in Calgary. In one school, I have a classroom where I am expected to teach French to 39 Grade 4 students. In another school, I have a kindergarten class with 29 students, and I teach in schools where there are no extra resources for ESL students and students with special needs. How can we reach every child, every day in these circumstances?
The cracks are widening
Our class sizes are creeping up. We are a high-needs school full of ESL students with many resource needs. Our resource team has been put into classrooms and our assistant principal may have to take on classroom and resource roles. We will not meet the needs of many of these students—they will fall through ever-widening cracks. These kids already live a step behind many kids in our city. I’m outraged! They need more support, not less. In the classroom, we do what we can, but with 30 kids something will slip. To be told to solve more at the school level is classic buck-passing. Our students are the future; they are not numbers with a dollar value attached.
