This is not a black and white issue. On one side the teachers are definitely facing classrooms that are increasingly more complex. There are more kids who have individualized programs, there are more kids who have English as a second language, and there are more with mental health issues. Teachers dont have the resources to deal with EVERY need and still be able to cover all the curriculum they are required to teach. They do need more help, even more than a wage increase.

On the other hand, the government also knows that a 12% raise for all teachers over 4 years is not unreasonable, (and some would get up to 17% as the grid would be equalized across the province giving a bump to some lower paid divisions) but they dont want to commit to classroom size caps because of the additional cost of constructing new schools and the extra staff when they already have committed to building 90 new schools and spending nearly 9 billion on those projects. They committed to funding 3000 more teachers but finding them and more Educational Assistants is going to be tough.

They also know that there are other unions looking at what the nurses got (20% over 4 years) and what the teachers are asking for and then looking at the budget, which is projected to be over 6 billion dollars DEFICIT and know that if EVERY union asks for that much more the deficit is going to be considerably more next year. That money has to come from somewhere and no one likes higher taxes.

Then you gotta add in the political factor that the ATA and the NDP are closely aligned and this isn’t just teachers vs the gov, there is definitely a UCP vs the NDP subplot going on as the NDP looks toward gaining ground for the next election.

None of this is cut and dried. And the whole “Danielle stupid/MAGA sucks” rhetoric is ridiculous and naive. Do some research and make an informed comment.

IMPLEMENT A SALES TAX.

A sales tax is a regressive tax. None of us should have sales taxes to begin with. Instead, they should cancel subsidies to oil&gas companies and start taxing them appropriately for the climate killing criminal enterprises that they are.

A sales tax is a regressive tax. None of us should have sales taxes to begin with. Instead, they should cancel subsidies to oil&gas companies and start taxing them appropriately for the climate killing criminal enterprises that they are.

You said that they needed more teachers and more EAs. That takes money. Being paid a lot more makes you willing to deal with a lot more. The old, “They don’t pay me enough for this shit” refrain comes to mind. If they took the $30 billion they are handing out in corporate welfare and put it into education it would go a LONG way to solving the problem.

Where do you get this “30 billion in corporate welfare” figure from? Is that money that is taken from the provincial budget and given to corporations, or is that tax breaks? Big difference.

The Fraser Institute. That’s just direct handouts. That’s taking money that the citizens of Alberta paid into their government for things like healthcare and EDUCATION that are instead being given to for profit corporations. When you include tax breaks and other incentives it’s likely much higher.

The only thing that comes out of her mouth is shit. And the only thing she wants to go in her mouth is trumps cumshot.

Its not ‘simple’. Teachers generally dont get into the profession for the pay because its not terrible, but it does need a raise, they’ve fallen quite far behind inflation. Their benefits are actually pretty good - dental, health, massages, counseling, paid leave for medical, family, bereavement, etc, its pretty comprehensive.

And the job has a lot of security which many jobs dont. So that part’s pretty good.

But the class size thing is anything but simple. A Kindergarten class with 22 kids is 22 kids. Likely a few learning issues in there but not really defined at that point. But then you get to senior high and now you have options. Might be 30 in an English class, but only 15 who are taking Band class. Or 10 in Biology but 25 in Chemistry, so how do you set a “class size” for senior high because not all kids take all the same classes.

And then comes complexity. Any teacher can tell you that a class of 30 kids who are all similar ‘average learners’ is far easier to teach than a smaller class with 20 students where 10 of them have individualized programs, 5 of them are new to Canada and dont speak much English and 2 of them have severe learning issues and need Educational Assistants because of extreme behaviour issues. So what’s a good class size? 20? Or 30? It gets tricky and definitely not “very simple”

I like how you know that some classes are too big to manage. You list several considerations a teacher may use to determine what is and isn’t a manageable class size. Then you turn around and use that to argue AGAINST class size limits.

You apparently oppose any class size limit because “it doesn’t perfectly resolve every situation”, leaving the teachers with no class size limits and no tools to resolve the very real issue of managing large class sizes.

This is a perfect encapsulation of conservative logic.

1.You see a problem you agree is real 2. You see someone’s proposed imperfect solution to the problem which certainly would shrink the size of the problem but not perfectly solve it. 3. You oppose the solution because although it would shrink the size of the problem, it’s imperfect and doesn’t solve the whole thing all at once. 4. You don’t propose or support any replacement. 5. The problem continues to grow unresolved, and you’re satisfied having done a good job stopping any kind of progress whatsoever.

Where did I say I disagreed with class size limits? My entire post was about how its not a simple thing to measure. You’ve jumped to a conclusion and then put a whole lot more assumptions on me and on “conservatives”.

Do you know how those “subsidies” actually work. They dont GIVE money to oil and gas companies, they give them breaks on their own taxes and royalties. There is no big pot of money that is scooped out to give to O and G that could be given to teachers instead. In return the O and G not only keeps Alberta’s economy afloat, it also is a major source of money for the rest of Canada’s budget. It also provides a huge number of AB’s population with very good paying jobs which means those people are all paying significant income tax which IS what pays the teacher’s salaries.

Has Danielle Smith ever had an original thought or is she just pulling everything she says out of the MAGA playbook?

Reopen the government Get back to work and we can negotiate to protect healthcare for millions of Americans you concerns. - - MAGA Mike Johnston Danielle Smith

ew didnt need to hear that.

I’m gunna start flagging this posts as spam soon

You know what? We’re gonna strike even harder.

CAN we flag any posts from that newspaper as spam? It would be great, but is that appropriate?

They said this strike was about class size limits and you said the problem is too complicated for simple class size limits, disagreeing with the union position.

Do you really think the teachers asking for class size limits don’t understand the nuance you pointed out? Do you think you’re the only one who understands the complexity of the situation. And yet they’re all asking for class size limits anyways, because although it’s imperfect it’s better than the current approach.

I don’t see where you’re confused. When you respond against a statement you’re disagreeing with it, as I’m disagreeing with you. Stop pretending context doesn’t matter and each of your statements should be taken and debated independently. That’s nonsense!

they give them breaks on their own taxes and royalties.

Even easier then. Get them to pay their fair share.

The rest of your post I chalk up to oil&gas propaganda. Alberta’s economy would not need Oil and Gas to stay afloat if they hadn’t been institutionally captured by these climate killing ghouls and had diversified their economy. Like honestly, this is just Big Tobacco but worse, because they are not polluting just lungs, but the entire planetary biosphere, and you’re going to seriously make that argument? They are evil psychopaths, just like Big Tobacco, profiting off of the death and misery of others.

And there is no reason whatsoever that it should be so. Alberta has a fantastic geography for renewables. What Quebec is for hydroelectricity they could be for wind and solar. But instead they keep licking psycho boot. Fuck that. Pay your god damn teachers.

They said this strike was about class size limits and you said the problem is too complicated for simple class size limits, disagreeing with the union position.

Do you really think the teachers asking for class size limits don’t understand the nuance you pointed out? Do you think you’re the only one who understands the complexity of the situation. And yet they’re all asking for class size limits anyways, because although it’s imperfect it’s better than the current approach.

I don’t see where you’re confused. When you respond against a statement you’re disagreeing with it, as I’m disagreeing with you. Stop pretending context doesn’t matter and each of your statements should be taken and debated independently. That’s nonsense!