Alberta Education's misleading class size averages

Alberta Education quietly updated their class size average data for the 2014-2015 school year.

In my school district, Alberta Education reports that there should be 24.1 students in my grade 6 classes, and 25.2 students in my grade 8 classes.

Because I live in the real world, I feel compelled to share with you that these average class sizes do not accurately reflect my students' reality.

I teach two grade 6 classes language arts and social studies. I also teach two grade 8 classes social studies.

I have 32 students in every single one of my classes.

Both of my grade 6 classes have 7.9 more students than Alberta Education reports.

Both of my grade 8 classes have 6.8 more students than Alberta Education reports.

I teach 29.4 more students every single day than Alberta Education reports. To be clear, that's more students than what Alberta Education reports are in any one of my classes.

Real accountability is about providing the public with the information they need about their public schools. Public assurance is about transparency, but there is nothing transparent about these average class sizes reported by Alberta Education. This Alberta Education class size report conceals more than it reveals. I wonder who benefits from this misleading information?

Class size and class composition matter because they have a huge affect on students' learning conditions and teachers' working conditions.

In 2013, the PCs cut 14.5 million from School Boards, but 11,000 new students enrolled. Today, a 9% cut is projected which could cut 2,500 teachers while 19,000 new students enrol.

Since 2008, Alberta's K-12 student population has grown by more than 70,000 students.

Unstable and inadequate government funding has meant that the number of teachers has not kept up with the surge in student numbers.

A five percent cut in funding next year could mean the loss of an additional 2,500 teaching positions at a time when another 19,000 students are likely to be added.

Check out this telling infographic that asks: Who Will Teach Us?

Whom is the Alberta Government for?

Alberta's public schools are expected to be
everything to everyone with less and less.

In Alberta, a dependency on oil and gas has left us grossly susceptible to excessive revenue volatility -- things are glorious in the booms but down-right scary in the busts. Thus, Alberta has come to be defined as much by our advantages as our disadvantages.

Today, Alberta is busting under a 40+ year old government now led by Jim Prentice who is yet again looking to balance the budget by cutting hard working Albertans and public goods such as health and education.

No one in their right mind would ask Jim Prentice to Be Like Ralph had the PCs learned anything in the 25 years since Ralph Klein took an axe to Alberta's schools and hospitals.

Alberta isn't broke, but Jim Prentice and the PCs' priorities are.

Hard working Albertans get upset when the government demands "burden sharing" during the tough times but ignores "profit sharing" during the good times. It takes zero courage to make hard working Albertans pay for the bad times while PC MLAs mismanage the good times in their own favour.

It's nearly impossible to believe that Alberta's oil belongs to Albertans when we have the second lowest oil and gas royalty regime in the world -- only Yemen has a lower royalty rate for oil. But, it's like they say, if it's good enough for Yemen, it's good enough for us... (wait, no one says that!)

Hard working Albertans get frustrated when "everything is on the table" means that public goods for all like schools and hospitals will be sacrificed to save private interests for the privileged few. In other words, austerity is when people who have the least give up the most, so that people who have the most don't have to give up anything. Cutting expenditures while ignoring revenues is like building a house with only a saw.

Webber Academy is an elite private school in Calgary
that has select admissions, annual tuition ranging from $10-20
thousand and is subsidized by Alberta taxpayers.

In 2013, any Albertan who made more than $17,593 paid the same percentage (10%) of Alberta tax regardless of their income. Alberta could raise its taxes by $11 billion a year and remain the lowest taxed province in Canada. When public services don't keep up with the wealthy's demands for things like health and education, they pay for it out of pocket -- while everyone else likely goes without. Need proof? Keep in mind that 1 in 7 children in Alberta live in poverty while you watch this powerful 9 minute video on the difference between an affluent private school and a poor public school in Calgary.

Cutting expenditures can not be the only solution. Prentice has said that, "I could terminate the employment of every single employee of the Government of Alberta, leaving aside healthcare, and it would not fill a six- to seven-billion-dollar hole." This isn't an argument for cutting healthcare or education -- it's an argument that says if your only tool is a saw, you will cut everything.

Alberta teachers are in the middle of a collectively bargained contract that has me get 0%, 0% and 0% pay increases over three years. I already have 30+ children in my grade 6 and 8 classes, and I teach 120+ students everyday. In 2013, Alberta schools added 11,000 more students, but the PCs cut 14.5 million. How many students will I have after Prentice and the PCs cut even more? How much more of the burden do children, teachers and schools have to pay?

Trickle-Down Economics or Flood-Up Economics?

If everything is honestly on the table, however, then Alberta needs to address our revenue problem by raising Alberta's corporate tax, oil royalties and moving to a progressive tax. We also need to take the Heritage Savings Trust Fund seriously.

The size of the Alberta government is not our primary problem -- our primary problem is figuring out whom the government is for. For too long, the so-called "Alberta Advantage" has been built on corporate welfare, crony capitalism and PC privilege which has led to socialism for the rich and capitalism for the middle class and poor. If the "Alberta Advantage" is truly for everyone, then Albertans need a government who will build this province with more than a saw.

Albertans don't need an early and illegal election that will cost them $20 million, but Prentice and the PCs do if they want to deliver a budget that will likely double down on four decades of PC failure, mismanagement and squandering. Alison Redford had no-meet committees while Prentice has why-meet committees, both are an assault on our budget and democracy. When crisis hits Alberta, and democracy seems a practical impossibility, we need a government that is for Main Street, not Wall Street.

As long as Albertans continue to vote the way they have always voted, Albertans will continue to get what they have always gotten. It's time Albertans stopped choosing between being healthy and wealthy, when we so obviously need both.

If Jim Prentice and the PCs are to receive this message loud and clear, most Albertans need to find a new political home and vote for someone and something different.

I know I am.

Alberta: 11,000 new kids with 14.5 million less dollars

The Alberta government has cut 14.5 million dollars from the education budget. With the addition of 11,000 new students and an increase of 7% in the ESL population, students will feel the pinch. Visit www.stopthecuts.ca to send a message to the Alberta government.

Glenn Kelly/For Metro

So how do these number translate into real life?

Sharad Gadhia, a grade 10 student at Queen Elizabeth High School in Calgary wrote an email to Alberta's Education Minister Jeff Johnson that explained how being stuck in classes with more than 40 students is impairing learning.

This story was covered by Calgary Metro News: 

Sharad Gadhia, who attends Queen Elizabeth High School, said up until Monday, two weeks after classes began, students in his class had been forced to share desks with the teacher and each other, and sit on stools. He said, even now, a large table has been moved in to accommodate a few kids and instructional time resembles something closer to that seen in a university lecture hall.

Here is Sharad Gadhia's letter to the minister:

  Student Letter

The Alberta Teachers' Association knows that class sizes are a major problem that needs to be addressed. After all, a teacher's working conditions are a student's learning conditions -- and while it's true that smaller class sizes alone may not be sufficient in increasing student learning, it is absolutely necessary.

Alberta's burgeoning classrooms are boiling over so intensely that on the same day Edmonton Metro and Calgary Metro ran headlines that have Edmonton and Calgary competing for the most overcrowded classrooms in the province:

Calgary Board of Education high school class sizes among highest in province before cuts

Data reveals EPSB high-school class sizes among highest in province before budget cuts

Here are two videos that the Alberta Teachers' Association has published in order to advocate for teachers and students who are faced with overcrowded classrooms.

Remember, class size doesn't matter unless you're one of too many students or the only teacher, and when people say class size doesn't matter, they are talking about other people's children.