NDP resists call to end funding for private schools
‘No plans to make any changes to funding model at this time,’ minister’s office says
Alberta’s NDP government appears to be cool to the idea of ending public funding of private schools in the province.
On Thursday, a coalition of 14 groups, including the Alberta Teachers’ Association, backed a call from Public Interest Alberta to phase out funding for private schools — excluding schools for students with special needs — by reducing provincial dollars by a third for each of the next three years.
That prompted the Wildrose Party to demand the NDP disavow any intent to end funding for the 186 private schools potentially affected by the proposal.
Education Minister David Eggen was not made available to comment Friday, but his office in an email threw cold water on the notion of removing the money.
“The funding model for all schools has not changed since our government was elected and there are no plans to make any changes to the funding model at this time,” said Eggen in a statement.
In opposition, the NDP often raised concerns about Alberta’s level of funding to private schools under the Progressive Conservative government, but on taking office in 2015 the party said it was committed to maintaining the status quo.
“Ideologically, we believe in a public model that allows each person to get the best education possible, regardless of their ability to pay and, in fact, we know through economies of scale that is a logical way to go,” Eggen said shortly after becoming minister.
“(But) I’ve inherited an educa- tion system that has other models that delivers education,” he said. “For the sake of security, for the sake of stability in our education at this point, I have no plans to change that landscape here in the province of Alberta.”
Eggen did say in the Friday statement that he understood the concerns raised by the groups calling for the end of funding for private schools.
Private schools in Alberta receive 70 per cent of the per-pupil funding of public schools, about $5,200 per student.
Advocates say ending that could free up $100 million per year in educational funding that could be used to support programs in public, separate and francophone schools that serve 93 per cent of students in Alberta.
The issue isn’t a new one, with the Alberta School Boards Association in 2013 passing a motion supported by the Calgary Board of Education calling on the government to end funding for private schools.
CBE chair Joy Bowen-Eyre said in an interview Friday that the government needs to make public education a priority as it develops a new funding model, though she stopped short of calling for private school funding to be ended.
“That’s a question for the education minister and the premier to answer. Ideally for us we would look for a better-funded public education system,” said Bowen-Eyre.
“Our call to action would be a review of the funding framework.”
Wildrose said the current system saves money because private schools are funded on a reduced basis. The Opposition cites a study from the advocacy group Parents for Choice in Education that says if all students in private schools enrolled in the public system it would cost taxpayers another $168 million in 2014-15.
“Alberta is a beautifully diverse province,” Leela Aheer, Wildrose MLA for Chestermere- Rocky View, said in a statement.
“Respecting that diversity means offering Alberta families a wide variety of educational choice.”
The groups making the call to end private school funding include the Public School Boards Association of Alberta, the Edmonton Public School Board, Progress Alberta, Support our Students (SOS) Alberta and a number of public sector unions and labour groups.
The Progressive Conservatives also took aim at the proposal, with Calgary- Lougheed MLA Dave Rodney calling it “threatening and self-serving,” and Tory leadership front-runner Jason Kenney describing it on Twitter as an “attack by NDP front groups on school choice.”
Joel French, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, scoffed at Kenney’s assertion, as well as the idea that ending private school funding would lead to an unaffordable influx of students into the public system.
French said taking away funding from private schools would free up dollars in a time of tight budgets to allow the NDP to keep promises in areas such as reducing class sizes and school fees and introducing a school lunch program and new classroom supports.
“I don’t know if, in the upcoming budget, the government’s going to change anything — we certainly haven’t seen any signal that they will,” he said.
“The reason we are doing this at this point is ... Albertans need to be more aware of how we are doing things.”
Respecting that diversity means offering Alberta families a wide variety of educational choice.”