Opinion: Undervaluing education support workers takes a toll on our schools

I have been a school librarian for 22 years. I help students find books for both information and pleasure, to learn to do online research, to write resumes and to edit writing assignments. I read to students, listen to them read to me and work with them on literacy skills. There is nothing more fulfilling than bringing the enthusiasm of reading to students. I recently received a card of thanks from a student I read stories to 15 years ago who thanked me for “opening the magical world of books to me.”

Education support workers like myself help students in many ways. Educational assistants help students with complex learning needs. Office staff provide bandages and care when students are hurt, (and call home to Mom and Dad when a student is ill). The caretakers, maintenance workers, bus drivers, and so many others keep our schools running in hundreds of different ways.

Alberta kids rely on us for learning, mental health and social development. We are on the front lines helping to keep kids safe, interested and on track. We work with teachers and parents.

But the wages educational workers are being paid do not reflect the enormous contribution we make to kids’ learning and to the public good.

Many education support workers in Alberta have not had a raise in over 10 years, despite the skyrocketing cost of living. Over that time period, the cost of living has gone up by 25 per cent, and the minimum wage has risen by 54 per cent. In contrast, the increase for education support workers over the past 10 years has been only 0.97 per cent. That means the system values us far less than it did a decade ago.

It is impossible to live on these wages. Many of us have second and even third jobs. Increasingly, many of us rely on the food bank to provide for our families.

It’s not a question of whether the Alberta government can afford to pay us fair wages. They have run huge surpluses the past few years — $11.6 billion in 2022-23. It’s a matter of priorities, and providing a living wage to workers should be a bare minimum.

Poor wages make recruitment and retention of workers in our schools difficult, especially as most are expected to have a post-secondary education. Positions remain unfilled because of a lack of applicants. Tradespeople leave to work in the private sector so they can support their families. Qualified educational assistants and library technicians leave to work elsewhere, sometimes even at minimum-wage jobs, because they can get more hours, meaning one job instead of two. Or three. As a result, schools are short-staffed, and workers are expected to do even more, leading to stress and burnout.

There are 2,200 fewer educational assistants working in Alberta this year than last. I’m convinced that a big part of that is people leaving, and positions going vacant because no one will accept the poor working conditions and poor wages.

Inadequate government funding for education has taken a toll on our schools. They’re no longer cleaned daily because there aren’t enough caretakers. Maintenance is not done quickly. Some students don’t get the supports they need to be successful. Libraries are unstaffed, leading to a loss of books and collections that are no longer responsive to the students’ needs.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Kids’ learning is a priority for us and a priority for Albertans. Education support workers are here to help kids get a good education and become engaged citizens. Their learning is a priority for us, and we know it’s a priority for Albertans. The Alberta government needs to invest in education support workers, to show it’s a priority for them too.

Joanne Lavkulich is chair of the Alberta Education Employees Committee, a sector of the Canadian Union of Public Employees that represents over 10,000 education support workers in Alberta.

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