It seems that more families are choosing to enroll their kids in private schools instead of staying in the public system.

That's according to a recent report released on Tuesday (June 27) from the Fraser Institute after they collected data from all province's education departments from 2000-2015.

The numbers show a 59% increase in enrollment in private schools, with only a 7.7% rise in public schools.

Rockyview MLA and Shadow Minister for Education Leela Aheer says she's not surprised by the results, but it shouldn't bring any discord to either systems.

"I don't see the reason for division at all amongst them. They all offer such wonderful and uniquely specialized things to the people. The fact that we have such a good public system is wonderful but again I think that choice in education is probably the most important piece."

The report took in data from both Anglophone and Francophone public schools with an even larger boost for the latter. In Alberta, Francophone enrollment skyrocketed 134% over the last 15 years.

Policy Analyst with the Fraser Institute Angela MacLeod says the percentages are quite different, but it doesn't necessarily mean one system thwarts the other.

"It's not so much that there's a higher number of kids in the independent school system. It's just that the independent school enrollment is growing as a share of total enrollment while we're seeing public school system enrollment decline."

Aheer agrees with that statement and encourages those who are a part of private schools to know how valuable they are to the Province.

"There's other numbers that need to be looked at as well. The fact is how much independent school authorities save the system in tax dollars. The Provincial Government saves tens of thousands of dollars with those students that are enrolled in other schools other than public."

Aheer went on to say that Education Minister David Eggen has said several times that he supports both public and independent schools as they are amidst increased calls from special interest groups to remove private school funding and possibly merge the systems.

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