The conversation around funding for education in Alberta is heating up.
At the heart of the issue is providing provincial funding to independent or private schools, and driving that debate is a petition by a Calgary teacher that’s gathering momentum.
The Elections Alberta-approved citizen initiative petition asks the question: “Should the Government of Alberta end its current practice of allocating public funds to accredited independent (private) schools?”
“The reason that this is an important issue to me is that our public schools are not being adequately funded and unless they are properly funded, I don’t think our government should be supporting private education,” said petition proponent Alicia Taylor with the group, Alberta Funds Public Schools.
According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, Alberta sits near the bottom for education funding in the country — a trend that has been ongoing for a few years.
Alberta’s total education budget this year for kindergarten to Grade 12 is $9.9 billion. Of that, about five percent has been allocated for independent schools.
In a statement to CityNews, Wing Li with Support Our Students Alberta says the petition and effort to defund private schools shows they are falling out of favour with Albertans.
“While our public schools are deliberately underfunded and understaffed, exclusive private schools that can charge tuition and choose their admissions are enjoying an outsized and unnecessary portion of public resources,” she said. “Public funds belong to public schools which serve all students in Alberta communities.”
Provincial numbers show that the student population has been growing overall – including in separate, charter and private schools.
Those in favour of funding private education say independent schools offer students with special needs additional supports that are not available in the public system.
“I just don’t know why there should be holes in public education to begin with. Not to use a cheesy metaphor but if we can work to create a more broad and resilient fabric of public education, then there’s not really a need for private education to fill said “holes,”” one Calgarian said.
Following last weekend’s provincewide canvassing, Taylor is feeling confident about the petition’s success.
“With continued support and potentially more canvassers, I’m expecting that we’ll easily meet our goal,” she said.
The goal is to gather around 178,000 signatures by February – to bring the question to a referendum.