Minister of Education, Adriana LaGrange. (Government of Alberta)

By David Opinko/LethbridgeNewsNOW

$25 Million Operating, $47 Million Capital

Province announces $72 million for public charter schools

Mar 15, 2022 | 2:09 PM

The public charter school system in Alberta will soon grow.

As part of the Alberta 2022 Budget, the provincial government has released more details about how they plan to expand this part of the education system.

READ MORE: Alberta presents balanced budget for 2022

The province will invest $25 million in operating funding and $47 million in capital investment over three years to support public charter school expansions and collegiate programs.

Education Minister Adriana LaGrange assures that public charter schools are autonomous non-profit institutions that receive the same base instruction allocation as other publicly-funded schools and are not able to charge tuition.

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“Public charter schools play an important role in Alberta’s education system by offering unique programming to students. Whether they attend a public, separate, francophone, independent, public charter, or home education, our education system will continue to support the educational choice of students and their parents. This investment builds on our commitment to strengthening Alberta’s long and successful tradition of providing choice in education.”

Officials say the funding will support planning dollars to explore a charter campus model which could allow multiple public charter schools to share specialized spaces for career and technology studies, science labs, or gyms.

They are said to be intended to focus on a particular learning style, teaching style, approach, philosophy, or pedagogy that is not offered by a school division.

In addition to this, the collegiate model is expected to create opportunities for more specialized and focused programming.

Premier Jason Kenney adds that it is important to ensure that families have more options for which types of schools will be the best for their children.

“Albertans support school choice. Through public charter and collegiate schools, this government will provide Albertans with more specialized and vocational learning opportunities in areas like science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the trades. This will help students achieve their potential and prepare them for their next steps in life.”

The Alberta Government did not specify where these investments will take place.

Public Charter schools in Alberta:

*Opening for the 2022-23 school year

Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) president Jason Schilling says that public education has experienced years of chronic underfunding and overcrowding and that new funding for education should be dedicated to Alberta’s public, separate and francophone schools.

“The government is dedicating $72 million in new funding to just 16 schools. This is an inequitable, unjustified, ideological investment that epitomizes how privatization comes at the expense of public education,” said Schilling.

“Public funds should go to public education,” adds Schilling. “Since 2013, real per-pupil funding for public education in Alberta has declined by 15 per cent. Government funding to expand charter schools is simply an effort at privatization at the expense of our public education system, which is the first choice for 93 per cent of Alberta’s students.”

“Today’s charter school expansion announcement from the UCP government is just the latest example of their destructive attacks on public education in Alberta,” said Bradley Lafortune, Executive DIrector of Public Interest Alberta. “They say this expansion is ‘enhancing choice’ and ‘innovation,’ yet all advocates of public education know this to be ideological spin. Every dollar that goes into charter school expansion is a dollar taken out of the public system.”

“All advocates of public education must reject the term “school choice” and recognize it for what it really is: a market agenda that further entrenches two-tiered, Americanized education for Alberta’s students,” added Lafortune. “Education is a universal need and it should be refocused as a universally accessible public good.”

(With files from rdnewsNOW)