UCP MLAs are trying to convince Albertans that their government has nothing to do with school board strikes in Edmonton, Fort McMurray and Sturgeon County.

Don’t buy a word of it.

Education workers are on strike because, on a per pupil basis, the UCP funds education at a lower level than any other province.

They’re on strike because the average annual wage for education assistants in Alberta is less than $30,000 per year.

And they’re on strike because the UCP has given themselves the legal power to control all school board bargaining – and they’re using that power to prohibit school board from offering wage increases that keep up with inflation.

We can’t hope to offer our kids quality education when class sizes are ballooning and staff are leaving because of poverty-level wages.

It’s time for the UCP to be held accountable for the mess they’re creating in our education system.

Send an email to the Premier, the education minister, the finance minister and your MLA today.

Help us put pressure on them to increase K-12 education funding to at least the Canadian average. And tell them to stop imposing secret mandates on school boards that prohibit them from offering fair wages to education workers.