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(TL;DR) Eric Voegelin’s The New Science of Politics remains one of the clearest guides to our modern disorder. It teaches that when politics cuts itself off from transcendent truth, ideology fills the void—and history descends into Gnostic fantasy. Voegelin’s remedy is not new revolution but ancient remembrance: the recovery of the soul’s openness to reality.
Eric Voegelin (1901–1985) was an Austrian-American political philosopher who sought to diagnose the spiritual derangements of modernity. In his 1952 classic The New Science of Politics—first delivered as the Walgreen Lectures at the University of Chicago—Voegelin proposed that politics cannot be understood as a merely empirical or procedural science. Power, institutions, and law arise from a deeper spiritual ground: humanity’s participation in transcendent order. When societies lose awareness of that participation, they fall into ideological dreams that promise salvation through human effort alone. The book is therefore both a critique of modernity and a call to recover the classical and Christian understanding of political reality (Voegelin 1952, 1–26).
1. The Loss of Representational Truth
Every stable society, Voegelin argued, “represents” its members within a larger order of being. In ancient civilizations and medieval Christendom, political authority symbolized this participation through myth, ritual, and law that acknowledged a reality beyond human control. The ruler was not a god but a mediator between the temporal and the eternal.
Beginning in the twelfth century, however, the monk Joachim of Fiore reimagined history as a self-unfolding divine drama in which humanity itself would bring about the final age of perfection. With this shift, Western consciousness began to “immanentize the eschaton”—to relocate ultimate meaning inside history rather than in its transcendent source. Out of this inversion grew the modern ideologies of progress (Comte, Hegel), revolution (Marx), and race (National Socialism), each promising earthly redemption through planning and will (Voegelin 1952, 107–132).
For Voegelin, the loss of representational truth meant that governments no longer reflected humanity’s place in divine order but instead projected utopian images of what they wished reality to be. Politics ceased to be the articulation of truth and became the engineering of salvation.
2. Gnosticism as the Modern Disease
Voegelin identified the inner structure of these movements as Gnostic. Ancient Gnostics sought hidden knowledge that would liberate the soul from an evil world; their modern successors, he said, sought knowledge that would liberate humanity from history itself. “The essence of modernity,” Voegelin wrote, “is the growth of Gnostic speculation” (1952, 166).
He listed six recurrent traits of the Gnostic attitude:
- Dissatisfaction with the world as it is.
- Conviction that its evils are remediable.
- Belief in salvation through human action.
- Assumption that history follows a knowable course.
- Faith in a vanguard who possess the saving knowledge.
- Readiness to use coercion to realize the dream.
From medieval millenarian sects to twentieth-century totalitarian states, these traits form a single continuum of spiritual rebellion: the attempt to perfect existence by abolishing its limits.
3. The Open Soul and the Pathologies of Closure
Against the Gnostic impulse stands the open soul—the philosophical disposition that accepts the “metaxy,” or the in-between nature of human existence. We live neither wholly in transcendence nor wholly in immanence, but within the tension between them. The philosopher’s task is not to resolve that tension through fantasy or reduction but to dwell within it in faith and reason.
Political science, therefore, must be noetic—concerned with insight into the structure of reality—not merely empirical. A society’s symbols, institutions, and laws can be judged by how faithfully they articulate humanity’s participation in divine order. Disorder, Voegelin warned, begins not with bad policy but with pneumopathology—a sickness of the spirit that refuses reality’s truth. “The order of history,” he wrote, “emerges from the history of order in the soul.”
Empirical data can measure economic growth or electoral results, but it cannot measure spiritual health. That requires awareness of being itself.
4. Liberalism’s Vulnerability and the Way of Recovery
Voegelin saw liberal democracies as historically successful yet spiritually precarious. By reducing political order to procedural legitimacy and rights management, liberalism risks drifting into the nihilism it opposes. When public life forgets its transcendent foundation, freedom degenerates into relativism, and pluralism becomes mere fragmentation.
Still, Voegelin’s outlook was not despairing. His proposed remedy was anamnesis—the recollective recovery of forgotten truth. This is not nostalgia but awakening: the rediscovery that human beings are participants in an order they did not create and cannot abolish. The recovery of the classic (Platonic-Aristotelian) and Christian understanding of existence offers the only durable antidote to ideological apocalypse (Voegelin 1952, 165–190).
To “keep open the soul,” as Voegelin put it, is to resist every movement that promises paradise through force or theory. The alternative is the descent into spiritual closure—an ever-recurring temptation of modernity.
5. Contemporary Resonance
Voegelin’s analysis remains uncannily prescient. Today’s ideological battles—whether framed around identity, technology, or climate—often echo the same Gnostic pattern: discontent with the world as it is, belief that perfection lies just one policy or re-education campaign away, and impatience with reality’s resistance. The post-modern conviction that truth is socially constructed continues the old dream of remaking existence through will and language.
Voegelin’s warning cuts through our century as clearly as it did the last: when politics replaces truth with narrative and transcendence with activism, society repeats the ancient heresy in secular form. The cure, as ever, is humility before what is—the recognition that order is discovered, not invented.
References
Voegelin, Eric. 1952. The New Science of Politics: An Introduction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hughes, Glenn. 2003. Transcendence and History: The Search for Ultimacy from Ancient Societies to Postmodernity. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
Sandoz, Ellis. 1981. The Voegelinian Revolution: A Biographical Introduction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Glossary of Key Terms
Anamnesis – Recollective recovery of forgotten truth about being.
Gnosticism – Revolt against the tension of existence through claims to saving knowledge that masters reality.
Immanentize the eschaton – To locate final meaning and salvation within history rather than beyond it.
Metaxy – The “in-between” condition of human existence, suspended between immanence and transcendence.
Noetic – Pertaining to intellectual or spiritual insight into reality’s order.
Pneumopathology – Spiritual sickness of the soul that closes itself to transcendent reality.
Representation – The symbolic and political articulation of a society’s participation in transcendent order.
To think that these individuals are going to be in charge soon is positively frightening.
The documentary presents unedited footage of a Spectrum Street Epistemology session conducted by Frances Widdowson at the University of Regina on October 3, 2024, facilitated with Indigenous psychologist Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson. It contextualizes the event within Widdowson’s broader conflicts over academic freedom, detailing the cancellation of her scheduled talks titled “Indigenization and Academic Freedom: Lessons from the Frances Widdowson Case” and “The Grave Error at Kamloops: Should It Be Described as a ‘Hoax’?”
Key background: Widdowson, formerly terminated from Mount Royal University amid disputes over “wokeism” and identity politics, arranged the talks through librarian Robert Thomas. University administrators, including Provost David Gregory and Associate Vice President John Smith, canceled room bookings citing “safety concerns,” particularly proximity to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Widdowson defied warnings, invoking Charter protections for public universities, and proceeded with the informal epistemology exercise in a student center, filmed by former faculty member Daniel Page.
The session examines claims via positioned mats (strongly agree to strongly disagree). Core claim: “The University of Regina protects academic freedom.” Robertson places himself at “slightly agree,” citing institutional policies like collective agreements but noting exceptions (e.g., pressures on Page and computer scientist Trevor Tomesh for LGBTQ-related criticisms and social media posts, respectively). Widdowson highlights her own case and systemic failures.
Related claims probed:
– Academic freedom equates to unrestricted speech: Robertson slightly disagrees, viewing it as narrower (professorial judgment in expertise) yet inseparable from broader expression.
– Professors may claim residential schools benefited Indigenous people: Robertson agrees in principle for academic freedom but personally disagrees overall, acknowledging abuses while noting some schools provided successes and First Nations lobbied to retain them post-1960s closures.
– Residential schools were harmful: Robertson agrees, referencing “residential school syndrome” (PTSD-like symptoms including rage), physical/sexual abuse, and underfunding, but not “strongly” due to variations across institutions.
Interactions escalate with students and a professor (Russell Fayant, from the Teacher Education Program), who arrives with a primed class. Participants accuse Widdowson of denialism, hate, and harming reconciliation; one claims her presence spikes blood pressure and causes distress. Widdowson counters with evidence gaps, e.g., Kamloops’ 2021 announcement of “215 children’s remains” (initially ground-penetrating radar anomalies, unexcavated) and William Combes’ unsubstantiated claim of Queen Elizabeth II abducting 10 children in 1964 (contradicted by royal itineraries). Disruptions include threats to an elderly attendee, projector unplugging, and event relocation from Regina Public Library due to organized opposition by coordinator Rachel Jean and journalism professor Trish Elliot.
Verifiable outcomes: No physical violence; security (Brad Anderson) monitors without intervention. Widdowson maintains composure, emphasizing evidence over emotion. Comments (242 visible) overwhelmingly praise her patience and critique students’ emotionalism, immaturity, and evasion of substantiation—e.g., prioritizing “therapeutic mythologies” over facts, fearing critical thought’s social costs.
Core tension: Widdowson’s insistence on verifiable evidence (e.g., excavations, historical records) clashes with appeals to lived experience, oral knowledge, and relational healing. She argues truth precedes reconciliation; opponents prioritize avoiding harm and building ties, viewing scrutiny as divisive. The session exposes institutional suppression—cancellations without due process—and student unpreparedness for rigorous debate, underscoring academic freedom’s erosion under indigenization mandates. No evidence supports mass murder claims at Kamloops; anomalies remain unconfirmed graves. The exercise, though chaotic, demonstrates dialogue’s possibility despite hostility, affirming verifiable truth as essential to intellectual integrity.
Alberta’s education system is at a breaking point. As more than 51,000 teachers strike across the province over oversized classrooms, the battle over class-size caps, staffing levels, and funding formulas has erupted into a full-blown crisis. With reports of classes swelling into the 30s and even 40s—and with the province no longer publishing detailed class-size data—the dispute between the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and the Government of Alberta has become a referendum on whether quality learning can survive without clearer metrics, stricter rules, and targeted investments. This analysis examines the facts, details each side’s proposals, and steelmans both perspectives so readers can decide where the truth lies.
A Classroom Crisis or Budgetary Reality?
On October 6, 2025, teachers across Alberta walked out, declaring that the province’s classrooms have become “untenable.” The ATA’s strike action followed a decisive 89.5% rejection of the government’s offer—a signal of deep discontent.
(Source: Shootin’ the Breeze)
The core issues are class size, student complexity, and resource allocation. Teachers report classes of 30–40 students, rising numbers of high-needs children, and too few educational assistants or supports.
(Source: Learning Success Blog)
The government, meanwhile, stresses budget restraint, local flexibility, and warns that province-wide class caps would impose unsustainable costs.
What Do the Facts Reveal?
Data Transparency:
Until 2019, the province published annual class-size data for schools. In 2019, the current government ended that practice—making it difficult to establish accurate, province-wide numbers.
(Source: Braceworks)
Reported Trends:
An ATA survey found that 72% of Albertans believe class sizes are “too big,” while only 20% think they are “about right.”
(Source: ATA News)
Nearly 40% of teachers say their largest class has between 30 and 40 students; some exceed 40.
Funding and Growth:
In 2020, Alberta shifted to a three-year weighted moving average (WMA) for per-student funding. This was meant to stabilize budgets, but schools in fast-growing regions argue it made it harder to keep pace with enrollment increases.
(Source: Braceworks)
Together, these factors—rising enrollment, slower hiring, and more complex student needs—created the “classroom crisis” the ATA describes.
The ATA’s Position (Steelmanned)
- Binding Class-Size Caps:
The ATA calls for enforceable limits—especially smaller classes in early grades and high-needs classrooms. Oversized classes, they argue, reduce individualized feedback and classroom management capacity. - Staffing and Support for Complexity:
The ATA emphasizes that class composition matters as much as headcount. Classrooms with several students requiring individualized plans or behavioural supports demand additional staffing. - Funding to Hire 5,000+ Teachers:
To meet the province’s 2003 class-size recommendations, Alberta would need over 5,000 more teachers.
(Source: Swift News) - Quality of Learning:
The ATA contends this is not about wages—it’s about ensuring conditions where teachers can teach and students can learn.
In summary:
The ATA’s strongest case is that Alberta’s classrooms are objectively too large and complex for effective instruction, and only binding standards—backed by resources—can restore educational quality.
The Government’s Position (Steelmanned)
- Fiscal Responsibility:
The government argues that rigid caps would cost billions and force trade-offs with other priorities such as facilities and technology. - Local Flexibility:
Because school boards face different realities—urban crowding versus rural under-enrollment—the government says decisions should remain local, not imposed from Edmonton. - Targeted Investments, Not Blanket Caps:
The province has proposed hiring 3,000 teachers and 1,500 educational assistants over three years to focus on high-need areas, calling this a “strategic” alternative to universal caps.
(Source: CityNews Edmonton) - Continuity of Schooling:
The government invoked back-to-work legislation, arguing that prolonged strikes risk irreparable harm to students.
In summary:
The government’s steelmanned position is that it’s acting responsibly—preserving local flexibility, fiscal discipline, and stability while still targeting the worst pressure points.
What the Evidence Suggests
The educational research is nuanced:
- Smaller classes, especially in early grades, improve academic outcomes and behavioural management. (See: Project STAR, Krueger 2002)
- Benefits decline as grades rise or when teacher quality is not addressed simultaneously.
- Blanket reductions are expensive; targeted reductions often deliver higher returns per dollar.
Applied to Alberta:
The province may achieve the best results by targeting early-years and complex-needs classrooms, rather than imposing uniform caps across all grades. The evidence supports smaller classes where they matter most, not necessarily everywhere.
Where the Facts Should Lead Public Judgment
- Demand Transparency:
Reinstate province-wide class-size reporting so both government and ATA claims can be verified. - Target Early Grades and Complex Classes:
Evidence shows these investments yield the highest payoff. - Acknowledge Trade-offs:
Caps and hiring increases require billions in funding—citizens deserve clear accounting of costs and benefits. - Negotiate in Good Faith:
Both sides have legitimate claims: teachers on workload, government on fiscal prudence. A transparent mediation process focused on data—not ideology—would best serve students.
Final Thoughts
This strike is not just about teacher pay. It’s about the structure of public education itself—what class sizes are acceptable, how complexity is managed, and how Alberta balances fiscal discipline with classroom realities.
If your priority is student-centered learning and teacher retention, the ATA’s demand for enforceable caps has merit. If your focus is fiscal sustainability and flexibility, the government’s caution makes sense.
Either way, the solution must begin with facts: transparent class-size data, verifiable outcomes, and evidence-based reforms that put students first.
References
- Alberta Teachers’ Association – Class size issues top of mind for Albertans
- Learning Success Blog – Alberta’s 51,000 Teachers Strike Over Classroom Crisis as Class Sizes Hit 40 Students
- Braceworks – Alberta stopped tracking class sizes. Then it changed its funding formula. Now, it’s a teachers’ strike issue.
- Shootin’ the Breeze – Alberta teachers vote 95% for strike over wages and class sizes
- CityNews Calgary – Overcrowding in spotlight ahead of possible Alberta teachers strike
- Swift News – ATA Wants More Than 5,000 New Teachers To Meet Class-Size Recommendations
“The issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution.” This maxim, drawn from Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, exposes a tactical pattern: a left-wing movement cloaks a raw power-grab in moral-righteous language. Nowhere is that clearer than in the 2025 teachers’ strike in Alberta.
On the surface, the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) insists the fight centres on a “funding crisis” harming students—demanding an additional C$2.6 billion plus large wage increases and stricter class-size caps. Yet the empirical record undermines the narrative that Alberta is desperately under-funded, and it raises the question: is this truly about pedagogy or about politics?
Funding vs Outcomes: The Data
In high-income countries, higher spending per pupil does not reliably produce higher student achievement. For example, U.S. elementary/secondary expenditure was about $15,500 USD per Full-Time Equivalent in 2019, compared with the OECD average of $11,300. (National Center for Education Statistics) A detailed Canadian analysis by the Fraser Institute found that spending fails to correlate strongly with performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. (Fraser Institute)
In Canada, real (inflation-adjusted) per-student spending on public schools increased only modestly from 2012/13 to 2021/22—5.1 % nationally—per the Fraser Institute. (Fraser Institute) More relevant: Alberta’s spending dropped 17.2 % in the same period. (Education News Canada) Hence the claim that Alberta’s education system is starving for funds is misleading.
Teacher Compensation & Relative Position
If wage deprivation were the core issue, one would expect Alberta teachers to be significantly out-of-line with their peers. But data show Alberta is not vastly behind. While the ATA asserts salary stagnation, the context is more nuanced: overall compensation is competitive at the national level. That suggests bargaining is less about emergency pay than about positioning. This implies the strike rhetoric—“kids first,” “funding crisis,” “education collapse”—acts as cover for political mobilization.
From Bargaining to Politics
The strike began October 6, 2025, involving some 51,000 teachers across the province and impacting hundreds of thousands of students. (Wikipedia) On October 28 the United Conservative Party (UCP) government invoked the notwithstanding clause through Bill 2—forcing teachers back and imposing a contract. (Alberta Teachers’ Association) That is a dramatic escalation for what many would expect to be a wage-and-conditions dispute.
The Broader Labour Mobilisation
But the strike did not remain isolated. The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) president called an “emergency meeting” of public and private-sector union leaders, demanding the government rescind Bill 2 or face “unprecedented collective action.” (Alberta Federation of Labour) Other unions—nurses, custodians, public-sector workers—were implicitly or explicitly aligned. This is no narrower labour stand-off. It is a broad labour front coalescing around a political narrative.
The Political Narrative: NDP Strategy
Enter the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP). Its leadership framed the battle as existential for the UCP, calling Premier Danielle Smith “coward” and declaring the strike “the beginning of the end” for the ruling party. Polls report the UCP’s approval tumbling.
The symbiosis is clear: union mobilisation, educational disruption, and political leverage combine. The “funding for students” narrative appears to morph quickly into a power-battle for political realignment.
When the “Kids First” Slogan Masks a Revolutionary Agenda
Framing the strike as entirely student-centric hides the political logic. By shutting schools and generating parental strain, the strike creates electoral pressure. The rhetoric of “for the kids” serves as a Trojan Horse. Unions and the NDP do not merely seek more money—they seek to reshape fiscal policy, entrench union influence, and weaken the standing party. As the Fraser Institute reminds us, simply throwing more money at K-12 education rarely produces measurable gains; the real levers lie in teacher-quality, accountability, curriculum rigour—not just budgets. (Todayville)
In Alberta the material case for emergency action is thin: if funding and compensation are already broadly in line, the crisis rhetoric becomes suspect.
What Should Parents & Taxpayers Do?
- Demand transparency: If the ATA or any union claims a “funding crisis,” ask for hard numbers—what line-items, what enrolment ratios, what outcome improvements are promised?
- Insist on measurable results: Additional spending should come paired with accountability—higher literacy scores, lower drop-out rates.
- Consider union-monopoly reform: If classrooms become battlegrounds for ideological or political conflict rather than learning, the monopoly model must be questioned.
- Focus on high-leverage reform, not just dollars: Empirical studies suggest teacher quality and delivery matter far more than marginal increases in spending.
- Recognise tactics: If a labour dispute evolves suddenly into broad political mobilisation, parents must ask: am I seeing advocacy for children or agitation for power?
The Stakes
If the revolution behind the strike succeeds, classrooms become pawns in a much larger game: the transformation of Alberta’s political economy, the elevation of public-sector unions as political actors, the weakening of fiscal restraint.
Parents may believe they support “kids first,” but without scrutiny they might end up supporting ideological conquest. The issue is never merely education—it is power. The question isn’t only “will teachers get more pay?” but “who gets to control the education agenda?”
Let classrooms remain places of learning, not battlegrounds for political realignment.
Bibliography
- Fraser Institute. Education Spending in Public Schools in Canada, 2024 Edition. Vancouver: Fraser Institute. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/education-spending-in-public-schools-in-canada-2024.pdf (Fraser Institute)
- Fraser Institute. School Spending and Performance in Canada and Other High-Income Countries. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/school-spending-and-performance-in-canada-and-other-countries.pdf (Fraser Institute)
- Fraser Institute. “Six out of 10 provinces increased per-student spending on public schools, even after adjusting for inflation.” Education News Canada, August 23 2024. https://educationnewscanada.com/article/education/level/k12/3/1097267/six-out-of-10-provinces-increased-per-student-spending-on-public-schools-even-after-adjusting-for-inflation.html (Education News Canada)
- ATA. “ATA to Challenge Bill 2.” Alberta Teachers’ Association News Release, October 27 2025. https://teachers.ab.ca/news/ata-challenge-bill-2 (Alberta Teachers’ Association)
- Amnesty International Canada. “Alberta’s use of notwithstanding clause in Bill 2.” Press Release, October 28 2025. https://amnesty.ca/press-releases/alberta-notwithstanding-clause-bill-2/ (Amnesty International Canada)
- Discover Airdrie. Anna Ferensowicz, “Where Alberta stands in national school spending: Fraser study.” September 12 2025. https://www.discoverairdrie.com/articles/where-alberta-stands-in-national-school-spending-fraser-study (Discover Airdrie)
- Todayville. “Spending per K-12 student in Canada ranged from …” (2022-23 data summary) https://www.todayville.com/spending-per-k-12-student-in-canada-ranged-from-13494-in-alberta-to-19484-in-quebec-in-2022-23/ (Todayville)
- Global News. “Alberta teachers say fight just begun but will follow the law …” October 2025. https://globalnews.ca/news/11497853/alberta-teachers-strike-will-follow-law-back-to-work-bill/ (Global News)
- Wikipedia. “2025 Alberta teachers’ strike.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Alberta_teachers%27_strike (Wikipedia)
Alberta’s first province-wide teachers’ strike has drawn national attention, exposing deep tensions between educators’ demands for fair compensation and the government’s drive for fiscal restraint. With more than 51,000 teachers on strike, classrooms across the province remain closed, and Premier Danielle Smith’s government prepares back-to-work legislation. Here’s what’s really at stake—and where both sides stand.
The Dispute at a Glance
The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), representing over 51,000 public, Catholic, and francophone teachers, initiated a province-wide strike on October 6, 2025—the first full withdrawal of services in its history. Collective bargaining began more than 18 months ago, but talks broke down after the ATA tabled a comprehensive proposal on October 14, which the government rejected as unaffordable, estimating an added cost of nearly $2 billion beyond current budget projections.
As of October 26, no new bargaining sessions are scheduled. Premier Danielle Smith has pledged to introduce back-to-work legislation on October 27 if no deal is reached, and her government has signaled readiness to invoke the notwithstanding clause to preempt legal challenges.
Core Issues and Divergent Positions
The ATA argues that chronic underfunding, rising classroom complexity, and stagnant wages threaten teacher retention and student outcomes. The government counters that its funding model already reflects enrollment growth, claiming the union’s proposal exceeds fiscal limits without introducing new revenue sources, such as a provincial sales tax.
Both sides cite inflation and federal immigration policy as aggravating factors but assign responsibility differently.
Key Positions Compared
| Issue | ATA Position and Demands | Government Position and Offers |
|---|---|---|
| Salary Increases | 15% compounded over three years to offset inflation (20–25% since the last agreement) and keep wages competitive. | 12% over four years (3% annually), plus a $4,000 one-time retention bonus; claims this would make Alberta teachers the second-highest paid in Canada. |
| Class Sizes and Complexity | Enforceable class caps (20–23 students max, K–9) and 200 minutes of guaranteed weekly prep time for high school teachers. | No mandatory caps; promises to hire 3,000 new teachers and 1,500 educational assistants, citing federal immigration policies as the main driver of class complexity. |
| Educational Supports and Funding | $2.6 billion in stable, dedicated funding for mental health, professional development, and special needs support. | $2.6 billion in base funding tied to enrollment, alongside over 130 new schools; focuses on infrastructure and hiring without raising taxes. |
| Negotiation Process and Strike | Rejects mediation as overly restrictive; frames strike as a lawful escalation after failed talks. Will adopt “work-to-rule” if legislated back. | Labels union demands as inflexible; offers enhanced mediation if the strike ends immediately. Proceeding with back-to-work legislation to “protect students.” |
Escalation and Public Response
What began as rotating regional walkouts has now become a province-wide shutdown, impacting hundreds of thousands of students and families. Public sentiment remains split—polls show strong support for smaller class sizes but growing concern about prolonged disruptions to schooling.
The ATA has twice rejected the government’s 12% wage proposal, calling it insufficient given inflationary pressures. Finance Minister Nate Horner maintains the offer exceeds adjustments made under the previous NDP government and aligns with broader public-sector restraint measures.
What Comes Next
With back-to-work legislation imminent, Alberta faces a pivotal test of both fiscal discipline and labor relations. The proposed bill would compel a return to work while imposing fines for defiance. ATA leadership warns that if the law passes, teachers will respond through work-to-rule actions and broader public advocacy campaigns.
Observers note that this standoff could galvanize other public-sector unions, creating a wave of coordinated opposition to legislative back-to-work measures across Canada. Whether a negotiated settlement or legal confrontation emerges first may determine the tone of public-sector labor relations for years to come.
References and Data Sources
- Alberta Teachers’ Association. “Moving forward with bargaining.” October 15, 2025.
https://teachers.ab.ca/news/moving-forward-bargaining - Alberta Teachers’ Association. “ATA rejects government’s biased mediation proposal.” October 17, 2025.
https://teachers.ab.ca/news/ata-rejects-governments-biased-mediation-proposal - Alberta Teachers’ Association. “Bill 2 won’t fix the crisis in Alberta classrooms.” October 24, 2025.
https://teachers.ab.ca/news/bill-2-wont-fix-crisis-alberta-classrooms - CBC News. “Province will consider back-to-work legislation for Alberta teachers if no deal.” October 15, 2025.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/nate-horner-alberta-teachers-strike-talks-legislation-9.6939589 - CBC News. “Back-to-work legislation to end Alberta teachers’ strike coming Monday, says premier.” October 23, 2025.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/back-to-work-legislation-to-end-alberta-teachers-strike-coming-monday-says-premier-9.6949884 - Calgary Herald. “Alberta teachers’ union has proposal for province amidst strike.” October 15, 2025.
https://calgaryherald.com/news/teachers-union-contract-proposal-alberta-teachers-strike - Edmonton Journal. “ATA angered by back-to-work legislation, but still considering options.” October 24, 2025.
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/edmonton-teachers-have-harsh-words-for-the-upc - Nate Horner (@NateHornerAB) on X (Twitter), October 2025 posts detailing government offer.
https://x.com/natehornerab - Red FM Calgary. “ATA President Jason Schilling calls for smaller class sizes and fair wages as teacher strike talks continue.” October 16, 2025.
https://calgary.redfm.ca/ata-president-jason-schilling-calls-for-smaller-class-sizes-and-fair-wages-as-teacher-strike-talks-continue/
As Alberta’s teachers’ strike enters its fourth week, the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) continues to frame its demands as a crusade for student welfare. Yet the claim that “more money equals better outcomes” collapses under scrutiny. From OECD comparisons to provincial spending data, the evidence shows that educational achievement depends far more on teaching quality, curriculum, and social factors than raw dollars. The strike, for all its moral packaging, reveals a deeper struggle over power, perception, and the limits of evidence-based policy.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association claims more funding will improve student outcomes—but decades of Canadian and international data show little correlation between spending and achievement. Here’s what the evidence actually says.
The Illusion of “Funding Equals Outcomes”
The ATA has justified its province-wide strike—launched on October 6, 2025—as a moral stand for students, demanding over $2.6 billion in new funding, along with wage hikes and class-size caps. This narrative, however, fails the empirical test. International and domestic data demonstrate no consistent correlation between per-student spending and academic performance in either Canada or the United States.
By invoking student welfare while halting instruction for hundreds of thousands of children, the ATA’s rhetoric converts a standard labor dispute into a manipulative moral appeal. The union’s campaign, in effect, weaponizes classrooms to secure greater compensation—substituting sentiment for substantiation.12
International Comparisons: Money Doesn’t Buy Results
Cross-national data dispels the myth outright. In 2021–22, the United States spent an inflation-adjusted $15,500 per K–12 student, compared to $12,229 in Canada.3 Yet on the 2022 PISA assessments, Canadian students outperformed Americans across all domains—mathematics (497 vs. 465), reading (507 vs. 504), and science (515 vs. 499).4
Within Canada, spending disparities tell the same story. Quebec, investing roughly $11,000 per pupil, consistently ranks among the top performers in PISA literacy and numeracy, while Saskatchewan, despite a 14.8% real spending increase from 2018–2022, has seen no corresponding gains in outcomes.56 As the Fraser Institute concludes: “Higher levels of per-student spending do not achieve higher student scores on standardized tests.”7
U.S. Evidence: The Plateau Effect
American data reinforces this pattern. Brookings Institution research on state-level NAEP scores finds that per-pupil expenditure is “only weakly related” to student performance, with intrastate differences far outweighing funding gaps between states.8 The Mountain States Policy Center adds that even after controlling for demographics, “little if any positive correlation” remains.9
Despite record K–12 spending of $857 billion in 2022, U.S. achievement continues to slide: 8th-grade reading scores fell three points since 2022, even after adjusting for inflation.10 Meta-analyses from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) quantify these effects precisely—every 10% increase in spending yields only a 0.05–0.09 standard deviation improvement in test performance, with benefits plateauing beyond basic adequacy.1112 In short: money matters, but only up to the point where systems are competently run.
Alberta’s Context: Selective Honesty and Strategic Obfuscation
ATA President Jason Schilling claims “chronic underfunding” drives poor outcomes. Yet Alberta’s per-student funding already aligns with or exceeds most provincial benchmarks when enrollment growth is accounted for.13 The union’s October 14 proposal advances structural demands unsupported by the evidence it cites, while rejecting a 12% wage offer that would make Alberta’s teachers the second-highest paid in Canada.14
This contradiction reveals intent. The ATA’s approach—threatening continued disruption and “work-to-rule” resistance post-legislation—shows the strike is less about pedagogy than about extracting concessions under moral camouflage.15 Polling confirms this miscalculation: while Albertans sympathize with smaller class sizes, they oppose protracted strikes that harm students.16
What the Evidence Actually Shows
Decades of research converge on one conclusion: achievement is driven not by spending, but by teaching quality, curriculum coherence, and socioeconomic stability.17 The global example is Estonia, which spends less than half the U.S. per pupil yet consistently ranks among the top five PISA performers due to its rigorous national curriculum and teacher accountability systems.18
The ATA’s position, by contrast, exemplifies a form of narrative warfare—a strategic fusion of moral rhetoric and material self-interest. Its funding narrative exploits public empathy while sidestepping empirical accountability. Policymakers should reject this coercive model and instead target resources toward proven reforms: effective instruction, rigorous content, and genuine equity—not symbolic spending.
Footnotes
- Alberta Teachers’ Association, “Moving forward with bargaining,” October 15, 2025, https://teachers.ab.ca/news/moving-forward-bargaining ↩
- CBC News, “Back-to-work legislation to end Alberta teachers’ strike coming Monday,” October 23, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/back-to-work-legislation-to-end-alberta-teachers-strike-coming-monday-says-premier-9.6949884 ↩
- OECD, Education at a Glance 2024, Table B1.1, https://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/ ↩
- OECD, PISA 2022 Results (Volume I), 2023, https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/pisa-2022-results.htm ↩
- Statistics Canada, “Elementary-Secondary Education Expenditure,” 2023, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-582-x/81-582-x2023001-eng.htm ↩
- Fraser Institute, “Comparing the Provinces on Education Spending and Student Performance,” 2024, https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/comparing-provinces-education-spending-student-performance ↩
- Ibid. ↩
- Brookings Institution, “The Geography of Education Inequality,” 2023, https://www.brookings.edu/research/geography-education-inequality/ ↩
- Mountain States Policy Center, “Education Spending and Student Outcomes,” 2024, https://mountainstatespolicy.org/education-spending-outcomes ↩
- NCES, Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 236.10, https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d23/tables/dt23_236.10.asp ↩
- NBER, “The Effects of School Spending on Educational and Economic Outcomes,” Working Paper 24649, 2022, https://www.nber.org/papers/w24649 ↩
- Ibid. ↩
- Alberta Education, “Funding Manual 2024/25,” https://www.alberta.ca/funding-manual ↩
- Nate Horner (@NateHornerAB), X posts, October 2025, https://x.com/natehornerab ↩
- Alberta Teachers’ Association, “Bill 2 won’t fix the crisis,” October 24, 2025, https://teachers.ab.ca/news/bill-2-wont-fix-crisis-alberta-classrooms ↩
- Angus Reid Institute, “Alberta Teachers’ Strike Poll,” October 2025 (summary via media) ↩
- Hanushek, E., “The Impact of Differential Expenditures on School Performance,” Educational Researcher, 1989. ↩
- OECD, PISA 2022 Results, Country Notes: Estonia. ↩
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