British Columbia had the lowest paid teachers in Canada and faced classrooms with the most students per educator in Canada as of 2011.

Whew! I’m glad I got that off my chest. These are the facts, well documented by Statistics Canada in its lovingly titled reports Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective 2013 and Summary Elementary and Secondary School Indicators for Canada, the Provinces and Territories, 2006-07 to 2010-11. These facts deserve a little unpacking.

Teachers in B.C. are the lowest paid in Canada. Statistics Canada collected data on teacher salary grids in 2010-11. These give clear comparisons across provinces of salaries for teachers, but to compare salary grids, we must compare teachers with particular levels of training and years of service. Statistics Canada chose to compare teachers with the minimum statutory training required to be a teacher in their province. In all provinces, teachers with additional qualifications are paid more, but it is roughly the same increment in all provinces: about $5,000 extra for teachers with one additional year of post-secondary training, and about $10,000 extra for Master’s degree holders.

Statistics Canada’s numbers show teachers in Surrey (the largest school district) had a starting salary of about $42,000, $4,000 below the national average and the lowest in the country. After 10 years, they would reach their peak salary of about $64,000, which was about $6,000 below the national average for that length of service, and lower than that of teachers in all provinces except Quebec. (Quebec teachers take longer to reach their peak salary, which was over $71,000 at 15 years of service.) When we think of the relative attractiveness of teaching as a profession for a new entrant, B.C. shines as the worst paid place in Canada. You can check these numbers out for yourself at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-604-x/81-604-x2013001-eng.htm, and especially Table D2.1 at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-604-x/2013001/tbl/tbld2.1-eng.htm.

Classrooms in B.C. have the most students per educator in Canada. The number of students per educator (mostly teachers, but including other support staff like educational assistants and some administrators like principals) was 16.8, the highest of all provinces in 2011. The other provinces ranged from 15.9 in Alberta to 11.8 in Newfoundland and Labrador. B.C. also bucked the over-time trend in class sizes. Between 2006-07 and 2010-11, all provinces except B.C. experienced reductions in the number of students per educator, and the national average dropped from 14.7 to 13.8, a big decrease. In contrast, in B.C., class sizes rose slightly over the period with the number of students per educator rising from 16.6 to 16.8. Again, these numbers are publicly available from Statistics Canada at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-m/81-595-m2013099-eng.htm, especially Table 13 at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-m/2013099/tbl/tbl13-eng.htm.

The B.C. Liberals kept their campaign promises to keep tax rates low, but they have sacrificed the education of our children to pay for it. Personal tax rates in B.C. for the highest income people are lower than all provinces except Alberta, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador. Personal tax rates at the median of the income distribution are lower than all other provinces. Small business tax rates are lower than all provinces except Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But these low tax rates come at a cost: they generate less revenue, and we therefore have less to spend on public goods and services. Hence, results in B.C. having the lowest paid teachers in Canada and the largest class sizes in Canada.

Krishna Pendakur is a professor of economics at Simon Fraser University.