We are Alberta's public education advocates, fighting for the right of all children to an equitable and accessible public education system.
May 3, 2023
Alberta Provincial Election is on!
Alberta Provincial Election is on!
Alberta's provincial election has officially been called for May 29!
In the past 4 years, Alberta's public education system has been heavily attacked by a hostile provincial government. With frozen education budgets each year, resources have not kept up with historic inflation and increased student enrolment. Grant cuts have caused classes to balloon to untenable sizes & complexities. Safety measures and programs were even withheld from students during a global health crisis.
Public education is our best chance at generating societal cohesion and preparing children for active democratic engagement so we can collectively solve multiple overlapping societal crises.
But it needs to be bolstered and actively protected this provincial election.
Use our SOS Public Education Voter Toolkit to question your candidates.
Talk to your friends and school/parent communities about making public education a key election issue on May 29.
In the past 4 years, Alberta's public education system has been heavily attacked by a hostile provincial government. With frozen education budgets each year, resources have not kept up with historic inflation and increased student enrolment. Grant cuts have caused classes to balloon to untenable sizes & complexities. Safety measures and programs were even withheld from students during a global health crisis.
Public education is our best chance at generating societal cohesion and preparing children for active democratic engagement so we can collectively solve multiple overlapping societal crises.
But it needs to be bolstered and actively protected this provincial election.
Use our SOS Public Education Voter Toolkit to question your candidates.
Talk to your friends and school/parent communities about making public education a key election issue on May 29.
March 3, 2023
New OpEd just published:
"Charter schools erode public education" by Wing Li (Communications Director)
In the Feb. 15 Edmonton Journal, David Staples lauded the benefits of charter schools in a column praising the breadth of school choice available in the capital region. While Edmonton Public Schools are being forced to compete with charter and private-schooling options for limited public funds, we need to ask whether this competition for resources is equitable for children. At a time when Alberta public schools are losing EAs, teachers, librarians, and school counsellors, is it really fiscally responsible to funnel more money into exclusive options outside of the public system such as charter schools?
Read more>>>
New OpEd just published:
"Charter schools erode public education" by Wing Li (Communications Director)
In the Feb. 15 Edmonton Journal, David Staples lauded the benefits of charter schools in a column praising the breadth of school choice available in the capital region. While Edmonton Public Schools are being forced to compete with charter and private-schooling options for limited public funds, we need to ask whether this competition for resources is equitable for children. At a time when Alberta public schools are losing EAs, teachers, librarians, and school counsellors, is it really fiscally responsible to funnel more money into exclusive options outside of the public system such as charter schools?
Read more>>>
March 1, 2023
MEDIA RELEASE: UCP 2023 Pre-election Budget Prioritizes Private and Charter Schools
After several years of flat education spending (which amounted to real cuts, leaving thousands of Alberta students in public schools unfunded), the mere injection of 5.2% of operational funding will hardly meet the bare minimum for funding enrolment growth. Despite the government's huge surplus, this budget leaves students in public schools ignored and gravely neglected.
The real winners of this budget are private and charter schools. There is new funding for private school transportation and new charter school construction. Read more >>>
MEDIA RELEASE: UCP 2023 Pre-election Budget Prioritizes Private and Charter Schools
After several years of flat education spending (which amounted to real cuts, leaving thousands of Alberta students in public schools unfunded), the mere injection of 5.2% of operational funding will hardly meet the bare minimum for funding enrolment growth. Despite the government's huge surplus, this budget leaves students in public schools ignored and gravely neglected.
The real winners of this budget are private and charter schools. There is new funding for private school transportation and new charter school construction. Read more >>>
November 8, 2023
Undermining Public Education: Privatization and "school choice" in Alberta
by Heather Ganshorn (Research Director)
by Heather Ganshorn (Research Director)
"When Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party (UCP) was elected to a majority government in Alberta in 2019, everyone with a stake in public education had reason to be concerned about the party’s plans for K-12 education."
Read more >>>
Read more >>>
10 Strategies for Equitable Public Education
We would like the Alberta Government to redefine and recommit the government’s responsibility to a more equitable public education system for all Alberta students.
- Make high quality early childhood education universal and accessible, leveling the playing field and closing the achievement gap for underprivileged children.
- Build schools as community engagement centres, comprehensive facilities where children and citizens can participate physically, intellectually and civically.
- Eliminate ALL barriers including all school-related fees (including, but not limited to, instructional materials, bussing, lunch supervision) and application procedures.
- All schools should have a full, inclusive, and balanced curriculum including but not limited to arts, music, science, history, language arts, additional languages, mathematics, and physical education.
- Reduce class sizes to bring them in line with the recommendations in the Alberta Learning Commission report of 2003 & provide adequate supports for classroom complexity.
- Integrate charter schools into public system, eliminating all fees and ability to deny access.
- Provide integrated services for students including medical and social services that help children keep up with advantaged peers. One in six Alberta children live in poverty.
- Reduce emphasis on high stakes standardized testing. Provide alternative and more comprehensive criteria for measuring student success.
- Return to specialization for teachers at all grade levels.
- Recognize that public education is a public responsibility not a consumer good. Its quality and accessibility should be equitable across the province.