Sarah Hoffman, NDP Critic for Education. (rdnewsNOW file photo)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

LaGrange Responds

UCP’s Bill 21 comes under fire

Apr 26, 2022 | 1:55 PM

Public Interest Alberta says the newly-introduced Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act (Bill 21) will see the removal of critical data collection accountability for private schools.

In response, Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director, Public Interest Alberta, says the Kenney government is trying to say that 2+2=5.

“They say the removal of legislated disclosure requirements of tuition from private schools leads to ‘more accountability’. This is ridiculous,” said Lafortune, on Monday. “Alberta continues to fund private schools at 70 per cent of the rate that they fund public schools per student, all while the UCP starves our public system of necessary funding. We need more accountability from these institutions taking money from the public system, not less.”

Lafortune says every dollar that goes into the private school system is a dollar taken out of the public school system.

“This is not about “red tape reduction”. It’s about the UCP’s main agenda: deregulation and privatization to line the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us,” he exclaimed.

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“Every child in Alberta deserves a high quality education, reasonable class sizes, and a quality curriculum,” added Sarah Hoffman, NDP Critic for Education. “The UCP is deliberately sabotaging all three of these in the public, Catholic, and Francophone systems. Families deserve a minister focused on them, not their own personal ideological goals.”

“What we have here is an attempt to cover up how much taxpayers are forced to subsidize wealthy private schools,” continued Hoffman. “This bill is the opposite of transparency – it’s the deliberate concealing of information from Alberta families and taxpayers about how their money is being spent. As contributors to private school funding, Alberta taxpayers have a right to know what other revenue streams those schools have and what their balance sheet looks like.”

“While school fees and education property taxes are climbing for all families, many will be left asking why some schools are allowed to charge excessive fees and then withhold that information from the public,” questioned Hoffman. “Adriana LaGrange and the UCP cannot be trusted with public education. I commit to you that an NDP government will be completely transparent in the spending of public dollars in the education system.”

Minister LaGrange disputes those claims, however, saying independent schools in Alberta will still be required to report to Alberta Education information related to private sources of revenue, including tuition.

“This will continue to be required as part of the audited financial statements they provide to Alberta Education annually,” she explained. “This legislation, and the regulations we will be drafting will remove the requirement to report tuition/fee information using a specific Alberta Education developed schedule. This is an example of how we are removing unnecessary red-tape in the education system.”

“There are currently no directives requiring independent schools to disclose, either publicly or to parents, financial information or board policies and procedures,” added Katherine Stavropoulos, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Education. “Without this requirement, Alberta parents with children attending independent schools may have limited information about the operations of their child’s education provider.”

Stavropoulos says this legislation will create new requirements for independent schools and private ECS operators to publicly disclose through the posting of information online or otherwise distributing to parents, information related to private dollars, including:

• Compensation disclosures aligned with Canada Revenue Agency requirements for charities;
• Audited financial statements, including notes and schedules; and
• Policies and procedures.

“We will also require independent schools to submit to Alberta Education a statement of operations separately accounting for public dollars, as part of their audited financial statements for the complete entity.” stated Stavropoulos.