More is Not More

Two Alberta teachers and education advocates, Tania and Lindsay, who run the pages “Remove Nicolaides” and “Let’s Talk Alberta Education” respectively, join me to discuss the realities of Alberta Public Education: its mismanagement at the hands of our Education & Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, and his predecessor: Adriana LaGrange. Tania is a kindergarten French immersion teacher in Calgary-Bow who became involved in advocacy after simply trying to sign Nicolaides’ recall petition, while Lindsay describes herself as a “reluctant influencer” with nearly 20 years of teaching experience who started her online presence the same summer the first screeners were introduced. Both discuss how the UCP government’s decisions since 2019 have systematically eroded public education in Alberta, beginning with dramatic cuts to Program Unit Funding (PUF), which had previously provided holistic early childhood assessments and in-school therapeutic supports such as occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists working weekly with students. Removing these supports after COVID, when students arguably needed them most, has caused unaddressed developmental gaps to snowball as children progress through the school system.

In place of the earlier holistic screener system, the government introduced mandatory literacy and numeracy screeners that both teachers argue are developmentally inappropriate, anxiety-inducing, and produce no meaningful data or corresponding support. Lindsay describes the current screeners as something no teacher asked for, and notes that even the expert credited with designing them bases his university courses on “screening and intervention,” not screening alone. Weber Academy, a high-tuition private school, publicly stated the government screeners were “far too basic” and provided “no meaningful or valuable feedback,” and that administering them would come at the school’s own expense. Administering the screeners requires one-on-one time, substitute teacher coverage, and additional planning burdens that fall entirely on already overstretched teachers, with any resulting intervention also placed on teachers’ shoulders rather than dedicated support staff.

The conversation also explores the political and ideological influences shaping these education policies. Tania identifies a Christian think tank called Cardus that has sent policy memos directly to Minister Nicolaides, with at least three policy directions being imple