Cuts bringing larger classes; 500 Alberta teachers may lose their jobs.

(Calgary Herald, Fri Jun 18 2010, Sarah McGinnis [excerpts for space])

A six-year push by the province to trim class sizes by funding more than 2,900 extra teachers is about to erode with more than 500 teaching jobs to be slashed across Alberta this fall.
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"It's the start of a slippery slope back to what we had in the early '90s unless we have a commitment to the class size initiative and really make it work," said Alberta Teachers' Association president Carol Henderson.

The Alberta Commission on Learning report released in 2003 established class size targets ranging from 17 students for kindergarten to Grade 3 classes to 27 for high school classes.

The government has spent $1.2 billion over the past six years, bankrolling the hiring of more than 2,900 teachers to meet the recommendations.

And the program was working. Alberta school boards met the majority of class size targets this year.

But most still struggle to get kindergarten to Grade 3 classes down. And with current education funding woes, it is feared they never will.
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The ATA estimates there are more than 500 teaching jobs on the chopping block provincewide -- including 192 full-time teachers at the Calgary Board of Education.
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The Calgary Catholic School District went class by class, school by school to cut 85.5 teaching positions.
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With teachers and support staff jobs being lost, and the government pushing for increased inclusion of special needs students into regular classrooms, NDP MLA Rachel Notley said the public has a right to be concerned about the state of education.

"It's all coming together to create maximum chaos," said Notley.

"The platitudes from the minister are not enough to allay the concerns of engaged parents. We've got a real problem looming."