Cut funding to private schools: public trustees

Public board votes to lobby for diversion of $162 million into the public system

The Alberta government should phase out public funding for private schools, Edmonton public school trustees voted to advocate on Tuesday.

“Our role, in my mind, is to be a leader and defend public education,” trustee Trisha Estabrooks said at a Tuesday school board meeting, where she introduced the motion.

Citing the $162-million annual cost of private schools that could be diverted into public schools, the trustees voted 8-1 to lobby Education Minister David Eggen to wean independent schools off public coffers.

Opposed was trustee Sherry Adams, who said she campaigned on school choice in last fall’s civic election. The five per cent of Alberta students who attend independent schools use two per cent of provincial education funding, she said. If public funding evaporated, private schools would close, and public education expenses would jump as students went into the public system, Adams said.

Vice-chairwoman Bridget Stirling said it’s a myth that defunding private schools prompts them to close. She pointed to Ontario private schools that operate without public funds.

Most Alberta independent schools get 70 per cent of the funding per student that a public school receives, which is among the highest levels of taxpayer support in Canada. Unlike public and charter schools, independent schools do not receive government funds for school construction or renovation.

The previous Edmonton public school board passed a similar motion in April 2016.

In her written proposal to board colleagues, Estabrooks said schools that choose students based on ability, income or faith should lose access to public funding. While critics say government should fund choices for parents, Estabrooks said families will still have the choice to pay the full cost for a private school education.

In a 2014 video interview with the Alberta Teachers’ Association before she was premier, NDP Leader Rachel Notley said: “Government dollars should not be going into private schools. They should be going into public schools. We would restructure funding that way, because we need to encourage more participation in our public education system, not less.”

In a written statement, Eggen pointed to the province’s investments in public education and did not answer a question about the pre-election plan to restructure private school funding.

“We continue to support the critical role parents play in their children’s education which includes their ability to choose the school they feel will best ensure their child’s success,” Eggen stated.

Alberta Education spent $27 million this year funding 15 private schools that charge students more than $10,000 a year, non-profit organization Progress Alberta said last week.

John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta, said in a Tuesday email it’s a misconception private schools are elite — some serve students with physical and mental disabilities, students living in poverty or children in foster care.

Since all school systems offer programs that are increasingly personalized, Alberta will need a diverse and flexible system, Jagersma said.

“Lobbying to hinder the education of one segment of the system by eliminating funding actually hurts the overall delivery of educational opportunities for students,” he said.