In the context of Alberta’s recent teacher strike, which began on October 6, 2025, following the rejection of a government contract offer, a pertinent question arises. The offer included a 12 percent wage increase for teachers over four years. Rather than applying this raise, what if the equivalent funds were allocated to hire additional educational assistants? Such a reallocation could address classroom support needs directly. This analysis relies on publicly available data to compute the potential impact, prioritizing transparency in figures and assumptions.
Alberta’s education system employs 51,000 teachers under the Alberta Teachers’ Association. Their average annual salary is $85,523. This results in a total annual payroll of approximately $4.36 billion. Implementing a 12 percent increase would add roughly $523 million to this payroll each year, once fully phased in, based on the offer’s structure.
Educational assistants in Alberta earn an average of $33,811 per year. If the $523 million earmarked for the teacher raise were instead used for hiring these support staff, it could fund approximately 15,480 new positions. This figure assumes full-time roles with comparable benefits and no significant overhead variances, focusing on direct salary costs.
This hypothetical redirection highlights trade-offs in education funding. While teachers seek compensation adjustments amid rising class sizes and workloads, bolstering assistant roles could alleviate immediate pressures in classrooms. The calculation underscores the scale of resources involved, inviting scrutiny of priorities in public spending.
Sources and Methodology
To ensure reproducibility, below are the key sources and the step-by-step mathematics used. All data points are drawn from recent, credible reports as of October 2025, with links provided for verification.
Key Data Sources
– Number of teachers: 51,000, from CBC News coverage of the strike (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-alberta-teacher-labour-strike-monday-1.7650856). Corroborated by Human Capital Magazine (https://www.hcamag.com/ca/specialization/industrial-relations/largest-labour-walkout-ever-51000-alberta-teachers-hold-strike/552206) and Calgary Herald (https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/potential-teacher-strike-results-vote-tentative-deal-province).
– Average teacher salary: $85,523 annually, from Alberta’s Labour Information Service (ALIS) wage survey (https://alis.alberta.ca/occinfo/wages-and-salaries-in-alberta/elementary-school-and-kindergarten-teachers/41221/). Supported by Statistics Canada data (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710024301).
– Wage increase details: 12 percent over four years (structured as 3 percent annual), from CBC News (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-teachers-strike-lockout-questions-9.6934129) and Alberta Teachers’ Association announcement (https://teachers.ab.ca/news/teacher-strike-imminent). Additional context from Canadian Taxpayers Federation (https://www.taxpayer.com/newsroom/alberta-teachers-should-be-ready-for-a-long-strike).
– Average educational assistant salary: $33,811 annually, from ALIS (https://alis.alberta.ca/occinfo/occupations-in-alberta/occupation-profiles/educational-assistant/). Hourly equivalent of $24.53 from the same source (https://alis.alberta.ca/occinfo/wages-and-salaries-in-alberta/elementary-and-secondary-school-teacher-assistants/43100/).
Step-by-Step Calculations
1. Total teacher payroll: Number of teachers × Average salary = 51,000 × $85,523 = $4,361,673,000.
2. Cost of 12 percent increase: 0.12 × $4,361,673,000 = $523,400,760 (annualized, post-phasing).
3. Number of educational assistants fundable: Increase amount ÷ Average EA salary = $523,400,760 ÷ $33,811 ≈ 15,480 (rounded to nearest 10 for practicality).
These steps assume the increase represents a permanent uplift in payroll costs. Variations could occur if considering phased implementation or additional factors like benefits (typically 20-30 percent of salary), but the core estimate holds for illustrative purposes. Readers are encouraged to cross-check with primary sources for any updates.
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October 13, 2025 at 10:41 am
tildeb
Inclusivity of special needs throughout public schools is the problem and cannot be overcome under this ineffective idealist model. Even with billions of additional funding it cannot work. This problem of special needs in the normal classroom is the main driver of increasing need for private schools because the public system regarding special needs cannot do as promised. That’s the brute truth. More funding doesn’t alter this one iota. The majority of private school use is by parents at or under the median income because their kids are not being served under the public model. Simple as that. Nor can they. The teacher’s union pretending otherwise – that the private system somehow undermines the public – is a disservice not just to all students but especially the tax paying parents who feel they must make additional and significant financial sacrifice for the welfare and education of their kids that in reality are not being served in the public system no matter how well paid the teachers or how many ancillary staff are used.
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October 13, 2025 at 11:08 am
The Arbourist
When they started including kids with special needs when I was in school it was, in my case, kids that were functionally blind. There was four in the classroom of 24 and an assigned aid.
The level of socialization this provided seemed to be really good for the blind kids, while teaching instruction was maintained for the rest of the class through the teacher/aide combo.
That idea of ‘inclusivity’ seems to have been quite thoroughly memoryholed as it is, in my opinion, effective.
What we have today is quite different. When I go into a classroom now to sub, I almost always get a list of kids that are violent and are not properly socialized and given directions to call the VP/P if they ‘act up’.
I think there is a case to be made for the first case of inclusive ed, but not the second. I worked/subed in behaviour classes and with proper help (I do love me a good EA) learning happens in those in environments as well.
Often learning doesn’t happen when someone is having a bad day for whatever reason, but at least its contained in that classroom. There is a significant emotional price to paid for keeping a behaviour classroom going even more so as a sub, but I think it is the better route to take.
The behaviours that happen in Behaviour Classrooms/Opportunity et cetera would break a normal classes flow and disrupt the learning of everyone. I just don’t see the benefit of sharing that level of disruption in today’s “inclusive” classroom.
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