Private schools save public system money

The Lethbridge Herald of Feb. 24 gives front-page coverage to some despicable bigotry of our public education establishment. Public Interest Alberta and 13 other groups are urging the provincial government to phase out public funding of private schools over three years. Arlene Hrynyk, president of Public School Boards Association of Alberta, says by continuing to support Alberta’s private schools, funds are being taken away from children in the public system. Here are my observations:

1. Unbelievable, the misinformation that Mrs. Hrynyk is producing!

2. Parents of children in private schools pay their fair share in taxes and should be entitled to their fair share in education funding.

3. The public system would bleed heavily if all these thousands of students from private schools would enter the public school system. Now Alberta Education spends $5,200 per student on private school students, but it will spend $13,000 per student on the same students if they cross the street and move to the public system. Why? Because parents in private schools contribute many thousands of their own dollars to the education of their children. Plus teachers in many private Christian schools sacrifice personally and financially by accepting a lower salary than they could earn in the public system. And last but not least, many private schools just operate more efficiently than the public schools. Maybe painful to hear for the bureaucrats in the public system, but that’s a fact. In the last five years independent schools have saved Albertan taxpayers over $750 million.

4. So what this all boils down to is ideology. There are some people in the public school establishment who loathe parents’ choice in education and students’ choice in education. They want every Alberta student to be formed after the image of the secular god of public education.

5. What we really need is an education system that encourages more efficiency, more choice and more parental involvement. Private schools meet all these goals!

Frans VandeStroet

Diamond City