Now’s the time to make a difference

“Who’s here for the betterment of public education?”
“We are!”
“Who’s going to work to make a difference?” 
“We are!”
“Who is here to support students and educators? Who’s going to vote? Who’s going to make the change?”
“We are!”

It was a crisp, overcast day on October 22, when poet Ali Knowmadic energized the crowd of thousands of teachers, parents and supporters assembled to stand for education. The ATA’s historic rally was the culmination of phase one of a three-phase, year-long campaign to push for a brighter future for public education. The campaign would present a bold and hopeful vision for the future of education and would call on all political parties to commit to this vision in the election scheduled for late May 2023.

Phase two involved a series of round-table conversations held with teachers, parents and community members to discuss the important issues facing education and to identify the priorities to push into phase three. Phase three is a strategic election readiness plan designed to raise the profile of education and to push for solutions in the 2023 provincial election.

Throughout the entire process, Albertans’ concerns fell into five interrelated themes and five key solutions to strengthen public education in Alberta. Last week, the Association released the full report of those round-table conversations and a platform of five key solutions to improve public education.

1. Reduce class sizes and support complexity
   Alberta has the smallest education workforce (relative to student population) in the country. This translates into large classes that include high proportions of students with diverse backgrounds and learning needs. Class sizes have gradually grown over the past 15 years as funding has failed to keep up with student population growth and rising costs. This was particularly true in recent years as funding was generally held constant despite thousands of additional students being added into schools.
    
2. Modernize curriculum
   Curriculum development was paused following Inspiring Education in 2011 and efforts to renew it have been slow, sporadic, controversial and hyper-politicised. New curriculum that supports creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and citizenship is sorely needed. Curriculum development must include teachers and the community working together to build a vision everyone can get behind.
    
3. Provide learning supports
   Students have increasingly diverse learning needs. In many cases those needs require additional specialised supports. Sadly, those supports are not there when students need them, and those students who need support are included in all classrooms without access to it. This is abandonment; this is discrimination.
    
4. Focus on equity
   Every student regardless of background deserves to have access to high-quality education. Indigenous students, racialized students, newcomers to Canada, those who experience poverty, rural communities, francophone families — these are all examples of communities that right now are not receiving equitable opportunities for educational success. This must be fixed. We also need to ask why the government provides so much public funding to private and charter schools that hand-pick students and exclude others, while so many of our public school students are missing out.
    
5. Invest in public education
   It is a national shame that the richest province in the country (by far) has the lowest per pupil funding (by far). Significant increases in funding are needed over multiple years to close this gap and get Alberta back to where it should be. Our students deserve so much better.

Phase three is upon us now. We need to have these conversations with candidates. We need to push all parties to commit to these five key priorities. We need to make education a defining issue in this election.

The ATA is undertaking an extensive advertising campaign, the president and vice-presidents have toured the province, Stand for Education emails and social media posts are mobilizing supporters, and locals are organizing forums and events to ask the big questions. 

Now is the time for all Albertans to stand up and take steps to push for a stronger public education system. Who’s going to make the difference?

We are. ❚