Despite a significant increase in student enrolment, 23 of Alberta’s school divisions, including the Livingstone Range and Westwind school divisions, will have less teachers next year.
According to the Alberta Teachers’ Association, a scan of publicly available school board budget reports for 2024-25 shows province-wide, more than 250 teaching positions are being eliminated, with one board cutting over 15 per cent of its teaching staff.
“We cannot be cutting staff in growing school divisions when schools province-wide are expecting to receive 26,000 additional students next year. The Alberta government made an election promise to hire 3,000 new education workers over the next three years; cutting teaching positions now fails our students and their learning,” says ATA President Jason Schilling.
Schilling adds the problem lies with significant and systemic underfunding of public education, in particular, funding based on the weighted moving average. The effect means new students are not fully funded until their third year of enrolment, leaving many students in growing school divisions unfunded.
Seventeen of the school boards cutting teaching positions expect to have more students than last year.
“Not only does Alberta spend the least on public education in all of Canada, but we also have the highest ratio of students to teachers in the country. This is why we have large classes and students struggling without the support and guidance they need for success. As it sits, next year will only get worse. Even school divisions hiring teachers are not funded adequately to hire the full number of teachers needed,” notes Schilling.