K-3 classroom sizes in Alberta's 4 largest school boards — from when Klein started measuring them in 2004 until the Government of Alberta stopped measuring in 2019.

Wait, how is the bargaining *chair* left out of bargaining decisions?!

I’ve tried to pack a lot in here: TL;DR - Many AB teachers intend to vote against a contract offer - among them is a teacher who chaired the bargaining committee until last week - ATA internal comms says if they strike, the scale will be unprecedented; public pressure will affect outcome #AbEd

Chicago’s charter school experiment has failed. As CTU President Stacy Davis Gates makes clear in her @chicagosuntimes Op-Ed piece: two decades of disruption, billions in public dollars, and broken promises have caused our communities to experience incalculable harm.

A rally will be held outside Alberta education minister Demetrios Nicolaides's Calgary office today #yyc www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/arti...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHVARSHOGRANDSLAM

Alberta Teachers: of the 3000 new teachers you are being promised, at least 1300 of those you would have *all ready* been receiving under the existing funding model. Of the remaining 1700 you are promised, 200-300 of those are going to charter and private schools.

The UCP could direct all — or some substantial portion of — capital funds for new schools to build charter schools (run by private societies). So even if the per-student grants rise to fund more teachers, the avaliable classroom space may only exist in non-unionized, non-ATA, non-public classrooms.

So the government doesn't hire teachers, school authorities do. School authorities get their money through per-student grants. Unless there's massive statutory change (haha, no) that money for more teachers, at least in part, is going to charter and private schools...

@albertateachers.bsky.social should absolutely demand class size reporting be reinstated. Their bargaining committee should have, but its not too late for teachers to demand thst the government be accountable to the public.

A little over 5 years ago I did a podcast, in it I spoke about the gains made by the Teachers Association in Alberta - most nota my I asked “WHAT GAINS?!!” Five years later and they’re still exactly there. NO GAINS. It’s time to make your organization work for you #ABTeachers. #Abed

I want off this ride.

Here's what we know about a tentative agreement reached between the Alberta Teachers' Association and employers: - same gen. wage increase offer: 12%/4 yrs - Adds 3,000 net new FT teachers over three years - Adds 1,500 net new EAs by 2028 - Unified wage grid by Sept. 2026 #AbLeg #AbEd

Advice to teachers: when dealing with the UCP, if you don't know where the funny-business is, you haven't looked hard enough. Will they try to count charter-school and private (non-ATA) hires towards that 3000 commitment?

Thoughts on the proposed @albertateachers.bsky.social deal, specifically class sizes. I have only seen the GoA-released statement that says 3k teachers hired over 3 years. In 2019, I ran computer models to determine how many more classrooms needed to return to Klein-era 2007 class sizes...

Hahahaha

SCOOP: A consultant advising Alberta Health Services on private surgical facilities simultaneously negotiated with AHS on behalf of a company vying to open such a clinic, according to a confidential report obtained by The Globe. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alber...

I need to get this on a t-shirt. @amandalhu.bsky.social you in?

JCCF loses again www.canadianlawyermag.com/resources/pr...

Its Name at Slight Upward Angle in Sans Serif on Cloroplast season.

Well this is awkward

I am going to ride my bike tonight.

"According to email correspondence reviewed by CBC News, the volunteer campaign work was framed as a component of their digital media course, with one campus director suggesting it would even help them get permanent residency"

So Roger's, in hindsight, is probably regretting that broadcast trade with AppleTV..

Update: The Cheeto Schnitzel was the tastiest of the Schnitzels

Did I run out of breadcrumbs and make a Cheeto schnitzel? Yes I did.

For the first time in Alberta history, Danielle Smith will use the notwithstanding clause preemptively to shield her bills targeting vulnerable trans children from legal scrutiny. Her actions are simply cruel and wrong. Read my full statement below:

The first time an Alberta government invoked the notwithstanding clause, public outrage forced a reversal in less than 24 hours. I wish to God Albertans would show the same moral fury now, when school children are outed & bullied by the government that is supposed to protect them. #ableg #abpoli

Ted Byfield's dream largely came true according to his plan.

Heard from numerous teachers tonight that they'd rather quit than accept what the government bargaining is moving towards. So a deal may be reached, but it may come as a Pyrrhic victory.

Looks like Admin Law is kinda relevant to democracy... #canlaw

One might say, this government frequently dishes "the sheet" on Albertans.

The UCP government is so desperate to get into a big nasty fight with the Alberta Teachers Association that it will eagerly spend money on an ad campaign attacking teachers before it spends money improving classroom conditions for kids. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Can confirm. Throw in twice-a-year admonishment for not attending mass to be heard by the people attending mass.

We have spent more than a decade uploading our politics and civil society to a cloud owned by oligopolistic tech firms. As the Trump administration moves to take over those companies, it is a direct threat to democracies everywhere. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Class Size Average as a metric understates the problem. It is the expected value of the class size if you randomly sample classes. More importantly: what is the expected value of the class size if you randomly sample students? Its always higher.

Just going to leave these here.

This is such a 180 from Kenney, who saw the Conservative parties as the natural party of immigrants and actively sought to include them.

Random sociology thought: how much were the prevalence of malls driven by the non-existence of cellphones? Without an easy means to communicate and coordinate, there was a demand for central gathering locations? In other words: did teens with cell phones kill the mall?

NEW STORY: The push to 'conservatize' Calgary's public school board. Six CBE trustee candidates have campaign materials that look identical—so we took a closer look. #yyccc #ableg

It always seems like IBM produces nothing but massive strategic failures that would tank any other company but still somehow is a behemoth 🤷‍♂️

Among all the terrible ways I can daydream this toi be used, I wonder if the province — while still a province — may one day just declare the existence of a "Albertan citizenship". Not separated, just say being an "Albertan Citizen" is a thing, and add it to the card.

So... law Q... to defend against the Govt's allegations, does this make the govt's secret negotiating mandate, enabled by the Public Sectors Employment Act... open to discovery?

Perhaps the most unnerving part is this feels like one deliberate step on a roadmap that we can't see.

The UCP cast the die for an inevitable strike when they stopped class size reporting in 2019. They clamped down the pressure cooker and disabled the safety and walked away.

I have to re-read the legislation, but I struggle to see how this is legal.

Siri, what is "red tape"?

Midshipman clobbered the head of a cop with... A PARADE RIFLE, after a false alarm over an active shooter, and the cop shot the midshipman in the arm. #oops #usnavalacademy

I wish @robbreakenridge.bsky.social had at least acknowledged this patently obvious strategy.