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Alberta teachers are on strike, and no one knows how long the strike will last. The Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) says public education is underfunded. During a recent press conference, ATA President Jason Schilling said teachers are “too concerned about this issue.” [public education] stand by and watch it slowly crumble and crumble due to chronic underfunding.”
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To support this assertion, the ATA notes that Alberta spends less per student than any other province in the country. In 2022-23 (the latest school year for which comparable data is available), operating costs per student in Alberta were $12,847, compared to the Canadian average of $14,789.
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However, before turning on the spending spigots, it is important to ask whether there is any evidence that increasing per-pupil spending improves student achievement. The answer is that it depends on the situation.
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For example, in less developed countries that spend relatively little on public education, increased spending has significant benefits. If teachers are not paid enough to make a decent living, schools will face high teacher turnover, and this will obviously not benefit student achievement.
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On the other hand, in developed countries such as Canada, there is little evidence that increased spending leads to improved student performance. In fact, all provinces, including Alberta, spend large amounts of money on public education. Education is second only to health care spending in each province.
While the ATA is technically correct in stating that the Alberta government spends less money per student than any other province, it overlooks the fact that overall education spending in Alberta has increased by 17.6% over the past 10 years. And the reason per-student spending in Alberta has fallen lower than in other provinces is because Alberta has experienced a huge influx of new students in recent years, far exceeding any other part of the country.
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Additionally, if less spending resulted in poorer student performance, Alberta would be expected to be the lowest performing province in Canada. However, the opposite is also true. Alberta students scored the highest in Canada in reading and science and ranked second in math, according to the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 data.
Conversely, New Brunswick, which ranks third in per-pupil spending, ranked in the bottom three among Canadian provinces in reading, science and math on the 2022 PISA tests. Interestingly, in its pre-budget submission to the New Brunswick government earlier this year, the New Brunswick Teachers Association complained of a “chronic lack of resources in classrooms” across the province. It seems that no matter how much money is spent on public education, teachers unions always claim that schools are underfunded.
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Be real
But rather than pushing for unsustainable increases in spending, teachers unions would be much wiser to demand more realistic changes. For example, provinces should improve school safety so teachers can work safely, adopt an evidence-based approach to reading instruction to ensure all students learn to read, and require school boards to reduce the number of counselors working in their central offices and reallocate money to classrooms.
This is also a great opportunity for the Alberta government to reaffirm its support for schools where teachers never go on strike. Teachers at independent and charter schools are not ATA members, so classes at these schools continue as normal. Clearly, it would be a huge mistake for any future Alberta government to give in to the ATA's demands and remove funding for independent schools.
It's time for the Smith government to end this strike. There is no good reason for students to bear the brunt of a labor dispute. Instead of allowing this strike to continue indefinitely, the government should order binding arbitration so that an independent arbitrator can hear both sides and draw up a new collective bargaining agreement. While there are many ways to improve public education in Alberta, turning on the spending taps is not one of them.
Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.
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