Alberta schools: Debate over how to spend $8.6 billion in construction funding

It’s been a month since Alberta’s premier announced $8.6 billion to build 90 new schools over the next three years.

The province says the move will give parents more options, with public, private and charter schools eligible.

Greater choice has led to multiple opinions about how public money should be spent.

For Edward Matsubara, smaller class sizes and the emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at the STEM Collegiate Charter School in south Edmonton convinced him to pull his 14-year-old twin sons from the public system.

“It’s like going to a private school without paying for it, that’s how we saw it,” Matsubara told CTV News Edmonton, adding that he and his wife have had their children on the waitlist for just over a year had before they were accepted.

“If they can get a higher quality of education – a higher quality of teachers, as we have found; a higher quality of facilities – to better equip our children, then in our opinion that is (the best). Whatever we can do to help them.”

Cheryll Watson, board chair of STEM Collegiate and a member of the Alberta Association of Public Charter Schools, says a total of 12,000 students are registered at charter schools across the province and another 20,000 are on waiting lists.

Demand for charter schools “overwhelming”

Charter schools have “the same social studies, English, math and science curriculum” and standardized testing as public schools, Watson said, adding that STEM Collegiate is looking for opportunities to incorporate STEM subjects in both its program and the Offering STEM subjects-related options.

She said since the United Conservative Party government lifted the cap on charter schools in 2019, enrollment demand has been “amazing.”

Edmonton is home to seven of Alberta’s 38 charter schools. Soon there could be more.

Prime Minister Danielle Smith last month announced $8.6 billion to build new schools and money to create 50,000 student places in the next three years and a further 150,000 in the four years after that. The plan calls for 12,500 new spots in charter schools over the next four years.

“The government has made a big effort to create choice in education and parents and families are hearing about this opportunity,” Watson told CTV News Edmonton.

“Alberta has one of the most diverse education systems in the country, and parents and students want that choice. They have special interests. They want to expand their interests. They want to be around peers who share similar interests. “I think this is really about being aware of the variety of opportunities that are out there.”

Funding change leads to “system of inequality”

Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), says he does not support the government’s use of public money for charter or private schools.

He points out that even though charter schools receive state funding, they don’t operate under the same rules as the public system, “such as a democratically elected school board.”

“Charter schools are run by clubs and run by parents,” Schilling told CTV News Edmonton.

“They are run by people who may have ties to the government, and they have no public control over the tax dollars that go into these schools.”

He said using public funds for charter and private schools “creates a system of inequality.”

“Our public system is currently in crisis. We lack resources for our students. We have overcrowded classrooms,” said Schilling, whose organization represents 43,500 teachers.

“We have a variety of things going on in our schools that need to be funded, but we are diverting millions and millions of dollars into a private system that can choose which students go into their classrooms and set class caps. Things.” What the public system can’t do – what we’ve been campaigning for – the private system can.

Alberta’s public and Catholic systems served 709,855 students in the 2023-24 school year.

Place for students top private school theme

Unlike charter schools, private schools charge tuition and follow their own curriculum, but receive 70 percent of operating funding from the province.

“We are truly a system of school choice and we are a living part of it,” John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta, told CTV News Edmonton.

“I think when Albertans learn who the independent schools are, they will realize the role we play within the system.”

Approximately 53,000 students are enrolled in private schools in Alberta. Jagersma said in more than 80 percent of them, the average household income of the families whose children they care for is “at or below the average income for the province.”

“If you ask … who goes to these schools, it’s your neighbors who go there,” he said, pointing out that students who attend private schools receive between $5,000 and $6,000 a year in state operating funds, compared to about $11,000 per student in the public system.

“It’s a diverse cross-section of Albertans that come to our schools… There’s absolutely a difference in tuition rates. Are there certain schools that have fairly high tuition fees? Yes, but there are many schools that are much more accessible.” Families have to be because of the participants.

He said space was the biggest barrier to access to private schools. “As we increase funding for choice programs and independent schools across the province, we are increasing the number of places families can access when it is good for their child.”

Smith’s announcement of school construction funding marks the first time that public money has been used to build private schools.

Alberta has a history of school choice

Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says such support is necessary as the province “grapples with historic population growth and historic levels of enrollment pressures.”

He defends the province’s decision to fund such construction and argues that the United Conservative Party government is upholding an Alberta tradition.

“It’s a tradition in Alberta to always provide opportunities for diverse programming, and that’s not just an ideological view of this current government,” Nicolaides told CTV News Edmonton. Even previous governments, even the previous NDP government, provided support to private schools, including capital funding and operating funding.

“Aside from it just being a tradition… I think all governments recognize and recognize the value and strength of making sure there are a variety of options for parents and I think that is the reason why it spans different ideals, different ideologies and different parties.”

Nicolaides said the announced $8.6 billion in additional capital funding would go entirely to public schools – “some of it will go to charters, which are also public schools,” he said – and that the government ” “I haven’t made any final decisions yet.” program for private schools and what funding would be associated with it.

“We are putting more money into the system to support building schools and creating additional spaces,” he said. “It’s not like we’re closing a public school so we can provide more money to a private school partner.”

The minister says he has received more than 400 applications to build new school buildings or renovate, 45 of them from charter schools.

He expects construction work to begin next spring.