Petition to defund private schools lands in Strathmore

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Alberta Funds Public Schools is calling for Albertans to voice whether they believe the province should continue utilizing public dollars to fund private education.

Petitioners were present in Strathmore on Nov. 9 to collect signatures regarding the topic, aiming to contribute towards triggering a referendum discussion. 

“The reason I wanted to do this was to bring awareness about the Government of Alberta’s practice of putting public funds towards private education, and I thought this would be a good way to educate the public, but also with the end goal of discontinuing the practice,” said Alicia Taylor, petition proponent for Alberta Funds Public Schools. “The Forever Canadian petition increased my awareness of the possibility of using this type of tool to make a change in Alberta. I wanted to do something that would support public education because I’m a teacher and I see some definite funding deficits in public education.”

She added while the Alberta Teachers Association was bargaining with the province for more funding, the province insisted there was no money to increase wages, and no interest in capping or reducing class sizes. 

Inversely, in the 2024-25 budget, $461 million was budgeted by the province to fund accredited private schools. 

This equates to 70 per cent of the per-student funding that a public school receives and is the highest level of private school subsidization in Canada.

Current forecasts suggest that private school funding in Alberta will exceed $500 million next year.

It is estimated that just under 50,000 students in Alberta attend private schools. 

“A lot of those students (in private education), I would argue, don’t need that money. Many of those students, especially the elite, private school students, their parents would be able to afford a private education regardless,” said Taylor. “My hope is to keep public education on people’s radar. Doing this petition work is bringing some awareness. There are ways that we could get more money for public education, and  perhaps that will help support our end goal of decreasing class sizes and having more supports for our students.”

She explained she had applied for the petition around Sept. 18, and it was approved by Elections Alberta as of Oct. 7. The petition was released to Alberta Funds Public Schools on Oct. 14.

As of Nov. 10, over 1,600 people and counting had applied to be canvassers for the petition, and over 13,000 signatures had been returned to Taylor, with many more yet to be handed in.

The team is currently working on a deadline of Feb. 11 to breach the required 177,732 signatures on the petition.

More information about the petition, where to sign, as well as an active signature count is available through the Alberta Funds Public Schools website.