In 2002, nearly 20,000 teachers across Alberta went on strike to protest low salaries and large class sizes. After nearly three weeks, then Premier Ralph Klein and his cabinet passed emergency legislation ordering the teachers back to work. At the time, I was in the seventh grade. All I could have told anyone about the teachers’ strike in Alberta was that I (happily) was not in school. More than 20 years later, however, history has repeated itself for very similar reasons that merit discussion slightly beyond what my 12-year-old self was capable of providing.

            After more than a year of negotiating between the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA; the union representing Alberta’s teachers) and the province, no agreement has been reached. In June of 2025, following the union’s rejection of a second offer from the province, 94.5% of teachers voted in favour of strike action. The strike vote empowered the union the initiate a province-wide strike within 120 days of the vote, on 72 hours’ notice. On September 10, 2025, President of the ATA Jason Schilling announced that on October 6, 2025, 51,000 teachers in Alberta would go on strike, resulting in a cessation of instruction, cancellation of extracurricular activities, and of course, school closures across the province. In the days since the announcement, no agreement has been reached.

            Following the strike in 2002, the province, under then Minister of Learning Lyle Oberg, commissioned a report to make recommendations to improve Alberta’s education system. The report, known formally as Every Child Learns, Every Child Succeeds: Report and Recommendations of Alberta’s Commission on Learning, was released in 2003. In addition to identifying tens of millions of dollars of budget shortfalls from funds provided by the province, the Report also included suggestions for class sizes:

• Junior kindergarten to grade 3: 17 students
• Grades 4-6: 23 students
• Grades 7-9: 25 students
• Grades 10-12: 27 students

The Government of Alberta, however, stopped formally tracking data on class sizes in 2019, and thus it is difficult to assess on a province-wide scale to what extent (or if at all) these recommendations have been adopted. A number of school districts in the province, however, still track class sizes and their reporting suggests that class sizes are much larger than those recommended in the Report. Some high schools in Edmonton, for example, report having nearly 34 students/class (on average) for grades 10-12 – seven more students than recommended size in the Report.

            According to the ATA, the province’s public, Catholic, and francophone school divisions would need an additional 5,000 teachers to meet the class size recommendations in the 2003 Report. The most recent deal offered to the ATA from the province, however, only included funding for 3,000 new teachers by August 2028 – a far cry from the demands of the union, and a factor explaining why more than 90% of ATA union members voted against it.

            The province additionally offered teachers a 12% wage increase over four years. Yet, according to the ATA, teacher salaries fail to keep up with the rate of inflation and cost of living. Over the last ten years, they maintain, “teacher wages have increased by a total of just 5.75% per cent.” The ATA also points to data published by Statistics Canada to claim that among the provinces, Alberta spends the least per student. While the Canadian provincial average is $13,692.00 per student, Alberta only spends $11,464 per student, making it the lowest in Canada. And while the ATA’s interpretation of statistical data is subject to debate, news reports suggest that Alberta’s education funding is among the lowest in Canada and has been in decline for nearly a decade.

            With all of this in mind, it is difficult to understand how Alberta’s leaders, including both its Minister of Education and its Minister of Finance, could openly say that they are ‘unclear what offer teachers would be willing to accept.’ I also find it difficult to not empathize with Alberta’s teachers and support their efforts to secure better working conditions, better wages, and smaller class sizes. Their workplaces, after all, are the very same classrooms where my younger self was equipped with the basic skills necessary to go on and pursue higher education. And so, while the seventh grade version of myself enjoyed a month off school, the present day version is grateful for the high school diploma that helped pave the way towards both my PhD and (forthcoming) law degree.