Canada

This is not a black and white issue. On one side the teachers are definitely facing classrooms that are increasingly more complex. There are more kids who have individualized programs, there are more kids who have English as a second language, and there are more with mental health issues. Teachers dont have the resources to deal with EVERY need and still be able to cover all the curriculum they are required to teach. They do need more help, even more than a wage increase.

On the other hand, the government also knows that a 12% raise for all teachers over 4 years is not unreasonable, (and some would get up to 17% as the grid would be equalized across the province giving a bump to some lower paid divisions) but they dont want to commit to classroom size caps because of the additional cost of constructing new schools and the extra staff when they already have committed to building 90 new schools and spending nearly 9 billion on those projects. They committed to funding 3000 more teachers but finding them and more Educational Assistants is going to be tough.

They also know that there are other unions looking at what the nurses got (20% over 4 years) and what the teachers are asking for and then looking at the budget, which is projected to be over 6 billion dollars DEFICIT and know that if EVERY union asks for that much more the deficit is going to be considerably more next year. That money has to come from somewhere and no one likes higher taxes.

Then you gotta add in the political factor that the ATA and the NDP are closely aligned and this isn't just teachers vs the gov, there is definitely a UCP vs the NDP subplot going on as the NDP looks toward gaining ground for the next election.

None of this is cut and dried. And the whole "Danielle stupid/MAGA sucks" rhetoric is ridiculous and naive. Do some research and make an informed comment.