Photograph by: Rick MacWilliam, edmontonjournal.com
Alberta, like practically every other province in Canada, is struggling to fund education, so they’re asking teachers to forgo a raise this year in contravention of their five-year contractual agreement. But the teachers are having none of that, despite the fact that Education Minister Dave Hancock warned it could lead to layoffs.
“Our fiscal reality is there is very little spare money in the provincial government coffers,” Mr.Hancock told media.
The problem is that the government had promised a 3% increase in wages this year [$2,550 more per teacher on average, a $76.7 million raise for the 30,063 full-time teachers in the province], and the school boards simply can’t afford it.
Delegates representing Albertan teachers would rather the school boards go into deficit than renege on their promise to raise salaries or lay off teachers.
But how many people will feel sympathy for teachers in this battle, after just coming off a fierce economic downturn? Teachers in the province earn $85,000 in salary, on average, making them the highest paid for their profession in Canada. This, in a province where the flat tax rate is a generously low 10%.
Median after-tax income for families in 2007 was $61,800, and $75,300 in Alberta. Individual after-tax income in 2007 for the province of Alberta was $29,200. If the average salary of a teacher in Alberta is $85,000, then that individual would pay federal taxes of just under $16,000. Throw in the provincial tax rate, and a teacher can expect to bring home $60,500, or slightly below the median family income for Alberta.
I’d say the teachers in that province are doing just fine without a raise.
And most of them aren’t fit to train dogs much less educate children. Fire.Them.All.
Lee, you want to fire all the teachers in Alberta. Are you some kind of whacko wing-nut. Are children need an education, don’t you think?
Phantom, a deal is a deal. A Conservative knows the value of a handshake. It means something. I am not surprsied that red tory Dave Hancock is pulling a stunt of going back on his word. It’s like Peter Mckay and David Orchard all over again.
If a deal is a deal, why aren’t they teaching the children to read, write and do simple arithmetic instead of turning out “graduates” who can’t read and understand a newspaper, can’t write a coherent paragraph, are innumerate and have never heard of the scientific method? About half of them are unemployable at anything other than Macjobs and the other half are overwhelming the universities, regardless of their personal interests, because they’ve been brainwashed into believing that the trades are beneath them.
According to the youngsters who I’ve talked to, about half of classtime is devoted to political brainwashing about the horrors of global warming, Canada’s evil history as an destroyer of all things good and true (didn’t our forefathers ever do anything right and possibly even morally justified?) and the evil behavior of corporate executives.
As I said, “Fire. Them. All.”
Children do need an education thats true, but your not getting much bang for your buck with the current crop of teachers out there thats for sure. Especially once you hit the middle and highschool levels.
This post is beyond ridiculous.
If you want to make a point, do so without the gross overstatements, because they just make you look silly.
This is the problem in Alberta. This government has been around far too long and has proven they are not capable of proper fiscal management.
The schools are horribly under-funded, and class sizes are far too large. Teachers are being asked to take on more and more work. If the government is going to continue to force them to teach classes twice the size they should be, the teachers have every right to demand the raise they negotiated with the government in good faith.
Notice it’s always the worker bees who are asked to forego the promised benefits, while administration continues to grow. Perhaps some of the bloated back offices should contract, freeing up more money and resources for the front line teachers.
Lee, your comment is over the line. There are good teachers and bad teachers, energetic ones and lazy ones. We were fortunate in that, generally speaking, our children had good teachers (some great ones). We had a simple rule in our household: Rule 1 – you will like and respect your teacher and do your best for him or her; Rule 2 – should you have a teacher you neither like nor respect, rule 1 still applies. That being said, there were times I would intervene and/or compensate because of problem teachers.
All I ever hear from the teachers is how they are so under-paid and overworked and the classes are to large and they don’t get enough time off or holidays and what a stressful and thankless job they have. Of course not a one can hardly wait to play the “strike card” if the public doesn’t buckle to their unreasonable demands. Then they actually have the audacity to walk a picket line and spout off how THEY are the professionals and just doing it for kids, you know, it’s all for the kids. Wake up you elitist snots! If things are so tough, quit and get a dose of reality – no four months off a year, no huge pensions, no public funded overseas trips, no home every night and weekends,no huge salary. Pathological whiners the whole lot.
Teachers are elitists?
Education is baaaaaaad. Are you one of those people who think “real” Canadians drop out of school? Ignorance is bliss and all that?
Gayle, that’s a silly response, even by your standards. I think you understand perfectly that we are only pointing out that those pampered and grossly overpaid sweethearts are NOT educating Alberta children. Drop out? At least half of Alberta children in Junior High have already “dropped out” of any access to meaningful education.
Perhaps “fire them all” is too harsh. Instead, do a results-based professional evaluation and fire all of the free riders.
I agree with Lee “fire them all”; pick people at random from the local phone book to teach at school, I bet the results would be better.
Actually, you are not pointing out anything. You are spouting off nonsense like it is true. It is kind of like saying teh reason we have such a huge deficit is because Harper secretly embezzled all our tax money and is moving to Brazil. Just because someone says it does not make it magically come true. It would be nice if you spent some effort actually using facts and figures to support your opinion.
So what is it that makes teachers elitists? Because they have the audacity to insist the government pay them the money they promised? Because they happen to have an education and thus are qualified to teach kids?
If you have concerns about the standard of education in this province, have you considered the fact that the dramatic increase in class sizes, lack of adequate infrastructure and lack of other adequate resources (text books, gym equipment, school counsellors etc) might have a role to play?
Oh no. You and your ilk immediately respond with the same old uninformed knee jerk reaction that you do about anything else. People who are educated make money, and we have to pay for that, and you do not like it. So attack them, instead of actually looking at other possibilities.
And what is my “ilk”? That comment implies that you know something about me.
“…people who are educated make money…” Yes, mostly. I have a couple of degrees and practiced as a licenced professional for 40 years. I’ve had fat years and lean years but a generally good life. I never whined in the lean years and never sucked the public teat.
It used to bug me, when I had kids in school, to have to correct spelling in their already approved and returned assignments and to have to teach them the rudiments of algebra and history when I would have rather been curled up with a good book.
“And what is my “ilk”?”
People whose knee jerk reaction is to attack the people performing the service without anything to back that with.
And no, your personal experience of helping your kids with their homework does not count…
PS – exactly who do you expect to pay teachers, if not the government? You complain about their choice of profession as though they made that choice on the basis of “sucking the public teat” rather than as a choice to teach your kids.
I suggest you start campaigning to end all public funding of education, in order to get rid of these public teat suckers who are responsible for educating your children.
Anyway…
“…a choice to teach your kids …” Ah, if only …
Paying teachers from the public purse has been the custom since the mid-19th century and would still be fine if the importance of “teachers beer days” aka professional development days, obscene pensions and that overweening feeling of entitlement hadn’t overshadowed the personal satisfaction of teaching children. (I’ll bet that you’re either a teacher or married to one.)
“…helping your children with their homework…” Nope – teaching them the basics virtually from scratch – something that most responsible parents have to do as a matter of course. What a change from days past, when the kids could come home from school and teach their parents!
“(I’ll bet that you’re either a teacher or married to one.)”
Ha ha ha
First you return to your knee jerk unsubstantiated attack on teachers, and then rather than address the points I made you decide to attack me personally.
I see what is going on here. You have absolutely no facts. You are bitter, you think teachers should have made up for your failures with your children, and you are still clinging to the notion that merely saying something magically makes it true.
The only “facts” you provide is your anecdotes about your own life. Well guess what – I just do not believe you. It is painfully obvious that you thought you could just get away with making stuff up, and when I called you on it you just made up more stuff to try to pretend that you actually had a basis for your rants.
It was amusing at first, but you are so predictable that I am just bored now.
Better luck next time.
Teacher, you’ve made my day!
ROTFLOL
Thanks for proving my point….again.
You do make it easy.
Thank-you, Gayle, for providing the rational outlook on this subject–and for putting people like Lee in his place.
Lee, you are wrong to criticize an entire profession so harshly–you have insulted so many well-meaning, hard-working people who truly do tremendous amounts of work to educate children. Whatever personal experiences you’ve had that seem to have colored your opinions are better off left unsaid. You just end up looking foolish in the end with your overgeneralizations and ridiculous statements about people you don’t even know and a profession that you don’t understand.