Students remain shortchanged in budget, says ATA president

By BRENDAN MILLER on March 1, 2025.

bmiller@medicinehatnews.com

e 2025-26 Budget, Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said the province must spend, at minimum, $11.35 billion on education to dig the province out of a four-year trend on being last in per-student funding in Canada.

The total expense for kindergarten to Grade 12 funding in the 2025-26 Budget is $10.44 billion comprising $9.88 billion in operating expenses, as well as $504 million in amortization, $42 million in debt servicing cost and $11 million in capital grants.

Schillings says the budget shortchanges Alberta students by approximately $910 million.

“Budget 2025 fails to meet the funding required to address the needs we have reportedly outlined as plaguing Alberta’s public education system,” criticizes Schilling, who said ATA’s funding request would have added roughly $9.59 per student, per day.

“Alberta’s public schools deserve better. Less than $10 per student per day would have begun to address the unmet needs in our classrooms.”

The province does not plan to approach the requested total until 2027-28, when spending is forecasted to be $11.25 billion, still $100 million shy of the ATA’s immediate funding ask.

Budget 2025 allocates $1.1 billion over the next three years to hire more than 4,000 new teachers and classroom support staff to address student enrolment growth.

“These increases mean that our schools will be able to hire more than 4,000 education staff, including teachers, educational assistants, bus drivers and other support staff,” said Finance Minister Nate Horner while tabling the budget Thursday.

As well, the province has earmarked more than $2.6 billion over the next three years to build schools and modernize learning spaces. The increase of more than $500 million from Budget 2024 covers the School Construction Accelerator Program that was announced back in September 2024.

Funding for students with specialized learning needs, or groups of students who require additional help, will reach more than $1.6 billion.

Additionally, Budget 2025 calls for the investment of $55 million to allow school authorities to add staff and support to complex classrooms.

The province has also set aside $389 million over the next three years to cover the rising costs of maintaining school buildings, insurance and utilities.

Funding will also increase for school authorities to provide increased sustainable funds for growth. This incremental increase will total $55 million in 2025-26, and grow by an additional $94 million in each of the following two years.

The University of Lethbridge will receive an estimated $5 million in 2025-26 toward its Rural Medical Teaching School. That funding is expected to increase by $17 million in 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Although education funding has increased from $9.3 billion in 2024 to $10.44 billion in 2025, CUPE officials fear the budget will lead to more educational support workers voting for strike action.

“This means strikes are likely to continue, and spread to more school districts,” said CUPE Alberta president Rory Gill, who joined thousands of striking CUPE workers on the steps of the legislature in Edmonton on Thursday while the budget was tabled.

“The government increased education funding, but it’s not enough to cover enrolment and inflation.”

Gills says the lack of funding will continue to “deteriorate” the province’s education system.

“The government does not seem to care that education support workers are making poverty wages, and have gone a decade without a proper increase.”

Gill says increased funding to hire teachers and support staff is welcomed, however the budget still does not address the low wages in the sector.

“The government needs to address low wages in the field.”

The Alberta Federation of Labour president says budget cuts to public services, including education, are “bad for workers, bad for families and bad for the economy.”

“Unions representing 250,000 public sector workers are bargaining for wages that keep up with the rising cost of living,” says AFL president Gil McGowan. “Anything short of wage increases that keep up with inflation is a cut that means workers will fall further behind. And that is completely unacceptable.”

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