The Government of Alberta has announced $10.8 billion in education funding for Budget 2026, a seven-per-cent increase from last year. Premier Danielle Smith said supporting the next generation remains a priority for her government despite a deficit. The funding will go toward building schools and hiring 1,600 teachers along with 800 support staff in the coming years. During contract negotiations with the province, Alberta teachers called for more funding to address class size and complexity. “They told us loud and clear the status quo was not sustainable, and we listened,” said Smith at a press conference Wednesday. Minister of Education and Childcare Demetrios Nicolaides said funding for education will help address issues of class size and complexity as the province continues to be the fastest growing in Canada. “Over the next three years, education funding will reach $11.5 billion by 2028-29, helping to hire more than 5,000 teachers, educational assistants and support staff,” said Nicolaides. The funding builds on the $143 million from 2025-26 announced earlier this month to address class size and complexity in the form of complexity teams made up of 476 teachers and 952 educational assistants. Amanda Chapman, Shadow Minister of Education, said her biggest concern with Wednesday’s announcement was where the province will find teachers to hire. “If you talk to teachers … it is a profession that is feeling disrespected,” said Chapman. “It is feeling a lot of concern about the rates at which they’re losing new teachers.” The New Democrat shadow minister said she doubts classrooms will see a significant increase in supports despite the province’s complexity teams and funding for more teachers. Funding to support students with specialized learning needs will increase by $86.5 million. In 2026-27, the province will allocate $20 million from the budget toward reading and math supports, an increase of 60 per cent from last year. Curriculum renewing will see $41 million to support teacher professional learning and development. The province said there will be $458 million going toward transportation for more than 348,000 students across the province. Nicolaides said input from teachers was an integral part of developing the budget. “We had probably the largest expression of teacher voices just a few months back, and so we were able to listen carefully to some of those concerns and take some additional steps,” said the minister. The United Conservative budget is expected to have significant cuts due to plummeting oil prices and what Smith has called “out-of-control” immigration. Nicolaides said Alberta has seen about a 150-per-cent increase in the number of students who require English as an additional language (EAL) and are students of temporary foreign workers. “We have seen explosive growth in more students of temporary foreign workers into our school system, and they’re requiring, of course, a lot more English language support and other supports as well,” he said. But Chapman argued that the education system is in crisis because of long-term government underfunding. “There are many categories of complexity in our classrooms – EAL is one of those, certainly – but we also have many neuro-diverse learners in our system,” said Chapman. “We have children coded as gifted, we have programs specifically for deaf and hard of hearing complexity.” ATA approves The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) said the announcement marked a significant day for public education in the province. President Jason Schilling said the funding in Budget 2026 “recognizes the urgency of the crisis teachers have been describing since last October.” Schilling and the ATA had criticized the Alberta government in past months, saying it was not properly funding education while the two parties were in the midst of tense collective agreement negotiations that resulted in a record-breaking teachers strike. “They heard us,” said Schilling at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “To the teachers of Alberta: your courage, your advocacy and your unwavering commitment to your students during the challenges of the last fall have changed the course of public education in this province, and I want to thank you for everything you have done.” He said he was surprised to see a seven-per-cent increase in education spending. “Given the track record of this government in the way that they have underfunded public education for as long as they have, I was expecting less. I was expecting the bare minimum.” More details on the education budget will be released once it is tabled in the legislature Thursday afternoon.
