Teachers in southwestern Alberta say the province’s new $200-million class-size reduction plan is a welcome step, but warn it will do little to solve ongoing classroom pressures in rural schools such as those in Livingstone Range School Division.

The Alberta government announced May 13 that it will fund the hiring of more than 1,400 teachers for kindergarten to Grade 9 classrooms in the 2026-27 school year through a new Class Size Reduction Grant.

Livingstone Range School Division is set to receive funding for three teacher full-time equivalents and $405,000.

Madison Stocker, president of Alberta Teachers’ Association Local No. 14, says local teachers see the funding as “a good start,” but not enough to address growing classroom complexity, large class sizes and staffing pressures in rural schools.

“We have some classes in Livingstone Range that have 30 or 38 kids in them, and there’s more than three of those classes,” she says.

Stocker represents teachers across LRSD, including schools in Pincher Creek, Lundbreck, Crowsnest Pass, Fort Macleod, Claresholm, Granum, Stavely and Nanton.

The provincial funding announcement comes after years of concerns from teachers and parents over growing class sizes and increasingly complex classrooms. Those issues were central during last fall’s teacher strike.

In a May 13 statement, ATA president Jason Schilling called the funding announcement “a positive step,” but said school boards may still face challenges hiring and deploying additional teachers while managing increasingly complex classrooms.

“Every student in Alberta deserves the opportunity to learn in a classroom where they can receive the attention and support they need to thrive. And every teacher deserves the professional conditions necessary to meet the diverse needs of their students,” Schilling said.

The grant will target schools experiencing the greatest pressure from class size and classroom complexity, based on classroom-level data collected from more than 108,000 classrooms across Alberta.

Schools with more core classes exceeding the province’s threshold for class size and complexity, often in larger or faster-growing divisions, will receive proportionally more funding.

“Moving forward, it’s important that the very different challenges faced by schools serving rural communities are not disregarded,” Schilling said.

Those concerns also reflect what teachers are experiencing locally, Stocker says.

While she welcomes the additional positions, she says reducing class sizes alone will not fully address the challenges teachers face.

“You can make the classes smaller, but you might still have different behaviours and complexities in there that make it still quite challenging to manage,” she says.

Stocker says teachers in rural communities are also struggling with substitute teacher shortages, which can contribute to burnout among permanent staff.

“Because we live rurally, there’s just not a surplus of teachers who aren’t working full time that want to sub,” she says.

The province says nearly 90,000 students have joined Alberta classrooms in the past four years as record population growth continues to put pressure on schools and teachers.

Stocker says the latest funding is unlikely to fully meet staffing needs across the province or in rural divisions if enrolment continues to grow.

“I do think it’s a step in the right direction, and I’m happy to see that education is being funded, but I don’t think it’ll be enough,” she says.

“We’re looking at maybe four more teachers next year, but already I’ve heard cutbacks across the division. We’re losing teachers all over.”

The latest grant builds on $143 million announced earlier this year to address class size and classroom complexity in the current school year. The province says that funding supported the hiring of up to 476 teachers and 952 educational assistants.

Schilling said the announcement reflects concerns teachers, parents and students have raised for years.

“Teachers will take some satisfaction that years of advocacy, culminating in the largest strike in this province’s history, created a consensus opinion that left government with no choice but to take concrete action to reduce class sizes and address classroom complexities,” he said.

“Class size and classroom complexity matter.”

Schilling said the ATA will monitor how school boards use the funding to ensure it is directed toward classroom staffing and support rather than administrative purposes.

“We will be able to look at their own financial statements to see where this money is being allocated and how it’s spent,” he said. “We also have the ability to ask our members questions to see just how we are seeing impacts within the classrooms.”

The one-year nature of the funding commitment also drew scrutiny.

“We have seen time and time again governments make funding announcements for a school year that don’t materialize in the following budget,” Schilling said. “We will just see a return to the complex, large classes that we have right now.”

Stocker says many teachers remain cautious heading into the next school year despite the announcement.

“Sometimes messages can get twisted a little, so that people think everything is going to be awesome next year,” she says. “I think people are nervous about going back in September and facing the same issues.”

Schilling said the association expects the government to address the needs of high school students in grades 10 to 12 within the coming year and to sustain and increase education funding in future budgets.

“We expect this announcement to be the first step in repairing the damage done by years of chronic underfunding,” he said. “But now the real work begins.”

Livingstone Range School Division did not respond to requests for comment.