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Rob Breakenridge: Private school funding a complex issue that may require an election

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This will likely be the Year of the Referendum in Alberta, but it’s still unclear which issues will be put to Alberta voters.

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We can strike one possible candidate from the list, though — the question of Alberta’s private school funding model. Efforts to put such a question on the ballot have come up short, as confirmed last week by the organizer of the citizen initiative petition.

Reasonable people can disagree on this matter, but it’s probably for the best that this question isn’t going forward. It was not a fair or accurate framing of the status quo, nor does it address the problems affecting public education.

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The proposed ballot question was, “Should the Government of Alberta end its current practice of allocating public funds to accredited independent (private) schools?”

Clearly, many Albertans have strong feelings on the matter, especially coming off the heels of the recent teachers’ strike and the underlying pressures in the education system that the dispute brought to light.

Petition organizer and teacher Alicia Taylor believes the effort helped draw attention to their cause. As she told Postmedia, “Each of those signatures represents a conversation, as many of the people who signed were not aware that public funding goes toward independent schools. Most of the people we talked to were outraged.”

What’s important to note here is the manner in which public dollars end up in the private system — the money follows the student.

It’s also worth noting the different kinds of systems that exist. There are, of course, public schools. And, yes, there are private schools of the elite variety — those that are for-profit and charge hefty tuition. There are, however, non-profit private schools that cater to specific learning needs. There are independent religious schools. There are also charter schools, which are publicly-funded and do not charge tuition, but also offer different educational approaches and philosophies.

In other words, there are plenty of options. Some of those options might be less accessible for some families, but the per-student funding helps bridge the gap. Wealthy families will always have options, but scrapping that funding makes it harder for everyone else.

Shortcomings in the public system have undoubtedly driven many families to seek other education options. But forcing those kids back into public schools won’t fix those problems — it could exacerbate them, in fact.

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Per-student funding for private schools represents about 70 per cent of the per-student funding that public schools receive. If this petition and referendum had succeeded, would it really mean extra dollars for public education?

Clearly, some families would remain in the private system, but the influx of kids back into public schools — and the associated increase in per-student funding — would offset most of those cost savings. Suddenly, we’d have even more students in a public system that’s already strained.

It’s hard to see how that benefits anyone.

Alberta certainly could and arguably should invest more in public education. We need more schools and more teachers. Day-to-day pressures need to be addressed, and we saw some steps in that direction last week with the announcement of $143 million for new “complexity teams” in Alberta’s elementary schools.

The Alberta Teachers’ Association argues that more is still needed and that this should have come sooner. In fairness, the Alberta government could do more or do it faster — it’s not hamstrung by the existence of private or independent schools.

By letting these problems fester, however, the Alberta government has opened itself up to this criticism and inadvertently undermined its own policy around education choice.

There’s not really a specific referendum question that can speak to all of this. But if Albertans believe that more needs to be done to support public education, or that the government’s current priorities are otherwise askew, then that’s a matter for the next general election.

Rob Breakenridge is a Calgary-based podcaster and writer. He can be found at robbreakenridge.ca and reached at rob.breakenridge@gmail.com

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