Who is to blame for the education crisis?
By Lethbridge Herald on November 25, 2025.
Editor,
The Alberta teacher strike spiraled into a disaster for all parties concerned, except for the provincial UCP government. As expected, their irresponsibility only exacerbated the mess. They are deliberately obtuse.
Prior to the strike, teachers and their students had to bear the brunt of the classroom situation by working under horrible conditions. The teachers then held a strike without pay, which is an immense strain for anyone to endure, and are now working again under horrible conditions. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The strike also held particular significance for parents, who found themselves in the unfortunate position of needing to explain to their children why school was no longer an option, while simultaneously trying to bridge that gap.
We must acknowledge the teachers who are taking on the responsibility of educating society’s youth. They not only put forth remarkable effort and make sacrifices, but they also endure the criticism aimed at the education system.
What goes unnoticed is the hierarchy of distributing resources and the decisions that influence public education. Teachers are the frontline workers in this mission, yet they become the targets of criticism from those who are willfully uninformed of the realities of the classroom.
To genuinely grasp where the problems lie, one must recognize the numerous individuals in leadership positions who are accountable for the challenges, not the teachers, who are left to navigate the difficulties spawned by the UCP’s inflated sense of self-importance, along with school divisions and individual school administrative teams and how their decisions affect teachers’ working conditions, compelling teachers to accomplish more with less.
Why is there a lack of resources? One might scrutinize upper administration and question how effectively they support the schools under their jurisdiction. Are resources being distributed in a genuinely effective manner?
Another fallacy that is often unjustly attributed to teachers by those who opt to remain uninformed is the idea of the so-called “days off” throughout the academic year. The summer break should not be regarded as time off per se, considering the extensive hours teachers commit from August to June. Instead, the summer hiatus merely functions to equilibrate the total hours dedicated to the teaching vocation.
Days for Professional Development are instituted by administrative bodies, both at elevated tiers and within the educational institutions themselves. Educators are simply anticipated to adhere to the mandates to participate and engage in these sessions as prescribed by those in authority over them.
When evaluating the current state of public education in Alberta, and employing a military framework for analogy, one ought to ponder: when a battle is lost, do we attribute the failure to the foot soldiers, or do we hold the generals accountable for their tactical choices?
Clearly, it is the generals who bear the responsibility.
Brock Slawtling
Pincher Creek
15-14
There seems to be enough money to give $240 million (so far) to coal companies because of government flip flops on coal policy; $1+ billion to pipeline companies for the pipeline-to-nowhere; $300 million subsidy for irrigators; $2.5+ billion to clean up liabilities of wealthy oil companies; foregoing $33 billion in renewable energy projects due to ideological opinions on the climate catastrophe …
The UCP blew well over $7 billion billion on that pipeline bet gone bad. There are still missing billions of dollars on loan guarantees. The UCP’s very costly debacles aren’t cheap. Around $15 billion lost from corporate tax cuts, which didn’t produce a single new hire, blew $20 billion on the R-Star debacle, lost $4 billion, without any paper trail, borrowed $25 billion, without asking Albertans about it, and the UCP have never revealed what they have used the money for, lost $1.6 billion on an “accounting error”, blew billions of dollars trying to prop up the Alberta PCs $35 billion bitumen upgrader debacle, lost $4 billion on a pension fund debacle, blew billions of dollars on various voter bribery schemes, including making Albertans pay $1.3 billion for the new hockey arena for Calgary, which Danielle Smith originally opposed, when she was the Wildrose Party leader, and as a radio talk show host, because she said it didn’t make any economic sense, blew $11 billion on loan guarantees, blew $80 million on Turkish Tylenol, which couldn’t be used, and $49 million of that money is still missing, blew $125 million on the DynaLife debacle, which the UCP caused, blew well over $600 million on the Corrupt Care scandal, which Danielle Smith is trying to whitewash the investigation, blew around $250,000 on new luxury carpeting, did a $1.3 billion debacle, which is connected to AIMCo, blew money on plane flights to various places, which gave no tangible results, blew $16 billion on settlements with coal mining companies, cost Albertans well over $150 billion, since June of 2020, with their economic witholding, power price gouging debacle, and many, many more.
Yeh, and there seems to be no problem dropping 30-50 million on recall elections based on “you mad”. You who support the recalls for frivolous reasons should foot the bill personally.
I you enact frivolous legislation …
Wait a minute, bucky. Maybe you can lobby your masters to prohibit snow making! Then you can sleep at night knowing Haig Creek is safe from being fed by melting snow in the spring.
Over 70 thousands with full benefits few others have, for a first year teacher. Most every first year worker doing anything, and getting summers to go canoeing and get paid for that would love job like that. No place on earth beats that. Don’t cry to me
The very people who invested in their careers, dedicated to care for your children and provide the skills required to maintain a civil society and robust economy.
Aren’t you glad your children have the opportunities afforded by receiving a good education? One that you obviously missed.
Good education hahah, some University kids can’t find way home without help. Some can’t add column of numbers without help. Education hahah, need more people who can fix cars plumbing and keep furnace running – not more degrees in coffee shop
Does my car have plumbing, or did you forgot the possessive apostrophe? Or, maybe, you have an issue with commas. You also seem to have some trouble with singular vs plural usage.
I think Sikorsky has a general problem with education, which apparently he doesn’t have a lot of.
wow, you do great job speaking for the utter most ignorant.
First, teachers are actually paid for the school year only. Their salaries are spread out over 12 months, which means either the government or the school board is earning interest on money already owed to teachers.
Second, if you think that teachers’ benefits package is too generous, maybe you should have made a different career choice. Many professionals have benefit packages that are more generous than those provided to teachers.
Finally, according to the Alberta Government, the average salary of a K to 6 teacher in Alberta is $52.69 per hour, and that’s based on a 33.1 hour work week, which is a ridiculously low figure.
Further to your final point, the 31 hour figure comprises contact and other assigned hours. The vast majority of teachers work outside those hours on tasks like marking, lesson planning, booking field trips, completing paperwork and contacting parents.
If we divide average teacher’s annual salary by the number of hours actually worked, that means my barber earns more per hour.
Many people invest in careers and many stay home to invest in their children too and not get poaid anything. not many start at 70 thousnands dollars and all the benefits that only taxpayer funded worker gets. You missed something to, or did you
We see some pretty big numbers for government spending. None close to the 10 billion, yes 10 billion for education. When is enough ,enough.
The total operating budget for K to 12 in Alberta for this year is $9.3 billion, and the budget for the 2025-2026 school year is $9.9. The key take-home point is those figures represent the total operating budget.
The issue many people are concerned with is the amount spent (or budgeted) on students, which is a sub-set of total operating. Interesting, both the ATA and the Fraser Institute agree that Alberta ranks lowest of the ten provinces on per student expenditure in the public system. Statistics Canada places Alberta in the 8th position, but they lump the public and private systems together.
So, if you take the position that $10 billion is more than sufficient, or maybe too much as your comment implies, then you need to come clean and explain why.
Every teacher I know can explain the negative consequences of low per student expenditure and why they are fighting for increased per student funding. Those consequences include over crowded classrooms and far too few EA’s to support special-needs students.
I suggest you proofread more carefully.
go easy – they are a product of our underfunded education system.
wow, such an easy job and so overpaid – why did you not get on that gravy train? why does not everyone hop aboard?
stop being so foolish that you come off presenting as a clod.
Brock’s letter takes on an even more prophetic significance when considered alongside the majority of the comments discussed here. This point in particular is distinctive: “Teachers are the frontline workers in this mission, yet they become the targets of criticism from those who are willfully uninformed of the realities of the classroom.”
Who do you suppose to be “willfully”uninformed? The education system is certainly not what it could be or should be. Simply demanding more tax dollars is not a solution.
It appears that both you and Sikorsky are struggling to grasp the nuances of Brock’s context. To prevent further confusion, it would be wise for you to review the letter to the editor again. This reflection will help mitigate further embarrassment that you and all the other willfully uninformed bring to discussion forums.
It is unclear where in the letter Brock demands more tax dollars, as the term “tax” is notably absent from the text. This indicates a lack of understanding or a deliberate misinterpretation of the content. A careful reading of the letter would clarify its actual message. Willfully uninformed, indeed.
Then the ATA needs to approach this like adults. Braying sheep gather no credibility. there is now a system in place to determine what issues need addressing. Oh yeh, and the ATA was represented on the Aggression and Complexities School Action Team. Been listening to the demands of the ATA and capitulating for years and just tossing money into the hands of some of those trying to usurp the government. Nice. No wonder the government wants information before handing out 2 billion.
Brock’s letter to the editor raises critical questions about resource allocation in education: Why are resources scarce, and how effectively does upper administration support the schools they oversee? He suggests that the UCP provincial government allocates funds to school divisions, which then utilize these funds to operate their institutions. However, it remains unclear how these financial resources are being deployed and whether they are being utilized in the most effective manner possible.
Brock’s letter to the editor raises critical questions about resource allocation in education: Why are resources scarce, and how effectively does upper administration support the schools they oversee? He suggests that the UCP provincial government allocates funds to school divisions, which then utilize these funds to operate their institutions. However, it remains unclear how these financial resources are being deployed and whether they are being utilized in the most effective manner possible.
”The strike also held particular significance for parents, who found themselves in the unfortunate position of needing to explain to their children why school was no longer an option, while simultaneously trying to bridge that gap”.
And with the growing unrest and petitions against private and independent schools one must wonder if parents are taking a long hard look at the public system and saying in conjunction with “no longer an option” that public education is “no longer worth it”.