ZWAAGSTRA: Smith gov’t should end teacher strike, but not with money

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Alberta teachers are on strike and nobody knows how long this strike will last. The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) claims public education is underfunded. During a recent news conference, ATA president Jason Schilling said teachers “care too much about it [public education] to stand by and watch it slowly erode and crumble from chronic underfunding.”

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To support this claim, the ATA notes Alberta spends less per-student than any other province in the country. In 2022-23 (the latest school-year of available comparable data), per-student operational spending in Alberta was $12,847 compared to the Canadian average of $14,789.

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However, before opening the spending taps, it’s important to ask whether there’s any evidence that spending more per student improves student achievement. The answer is that it depends on the situation.

The truth about spending

For example, in less-developed countries that spend relatively little on public education, increasing spending has a significant benefit. If teachers aren’t paid enough to make a decent living, schools will face high levels of teacher turnover, and this is obviously not good for student achievement.

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On the other hand, in developed countries such as Canada, there’s little evidence more spending leads to improved student achievement. In reality, all provinces, including Alberta, spend a large amount of money on public education. Education is second only to health-care spending in every province.

While the ATA is technically correct that the Alberta government spends less money per student than any other province, it overlooks the fact that total education spending in Alberta increased by 17.6% over the last 10 years. And the reason per-student spending in Alberta fell below the other provinces is because in recent years Alberta experienced a huge influx of new students far beyond anywhere else in the country.

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In addition, if less spending led to worse student achievement, one would expect Alberta to be the lowest-performing province in Canada. However, the opposite is true. According to the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from 2022, Alberta students scored highest in Canada in reading and science and second-highest in math.

Conversely, New Brunswick, which has the third-highest spending per student, ranked in the bottom three among Canadian provinces in reading, science and math on the 2022 PISA tests. Interestingly, in its pre-budget submission to the New Brunswick government earlier this year, the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association complained about the “chronic under-resourcing of classrooms” across the province. It appears no matter how much money is spent on public education, teacher unions always claim schools are underfunded.

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Be real

But instead of pushing for unsustainable spending increases, teacher unions would be far wiser to demand more realistic changes. For example, provinces should improve security at schools so teachers can work in safety, adopt a science-based approach to reading instruction so all students learn how to read, and demand that school boards reduce the number of consultants working in their central offices and reallocate the money to classrooms.

This is also a prime opportunity for the Alberta government to reaffirm its support for schools where teachers never go on strike. Teachers at independent schools and charter schools aren’t ATA members, which is why classes in these schools continue as normal. Clearly, it would be a huge mistake for any future Alberta government to cave to ATA demands and cancel funding to independent schools.

It’s time for the Smith government to end this strike. There’s no good reason for students to bear the brunt of a labour dispute. Instead of letting this strike go on indefinitely, the government should order binding arbitration so an independent arbitrator can listen to both sides and draw up a new collective agreement. While there are many ways to improve public education in Alberta, opening the spending taps is not one of them.

Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute.

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