The advocacy group Public Interest Alberta and 13 other education and labour organizations are calling on the Alberta government to phase out public funding for private schools over three years.

The Director of Operations and Advancement for Airdrie Koinonia Christian School, Ron Smith, says the call is disappointing, but not surprising.  

"I'm a bit disappointed.  These are fellow colleagues in the educational world and many other groups that make the fabric of Alberta, so to have them fight against us and other independent schools in Alberta definitely doesn't make me happy.  But this is nothing new, independent schools in Alberta have had a number of people over the years feel that the funding should be redirected to the public model, but it doesn't take long with a calculator to figure out that that's really not in the best interest of Albertans."

The groups lobbying the government to redirect public funds away from private schools say the money should go back into the public system so the NDP government can fulfill education related campaign promises, and be used to reduce class sizes in public schools.

Smith thinks reducing public school class sizes is a great idea.  "We keep hearing from the local school board and others in Calgary that over-crowding in the public system is rampant.  Our students benefit from smaller classes.  We advertise an 18 to one ratio and in some of our classes it's even less than that.  

Public funding works out to just over $5,000 per student, per year for private schools while students in the public system receive $13,000 per school year.  Smith says the parents that send their children to private schools have to pay tuition and do fundraising to make up the difference.

"Every one of our parents are taxpayers and that money goes into the pot.  A very small portion of that ever gets trickled down to private schools because the public school boards are getting the majority of that money, so parents are paying school taxes and not getting the full benefit from that."

Smith beleives that private schools offer something the public schools can't.  "The distinctive that we offer is that our parents want their children to learn a bit more than what the public school is offering about a certain topic.  So there's faith schools, there's sports schools, there's academic schools, there's special needs schools.  There's a number of different ones that kind of make up the landscape of Alberta education and all the different schools that are in it."

The government of Alberta says it is focused on working to provide a great education for all students.  A spokesperson for Education Minister David Eggen said, "we need to continue to ensure all public money is being used int the classroom to support students and prepare them for success."  

 

 
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