New Charter Schools Are Now Approved Without Public Accountability

Since coming into power in spring 2019, the United Conservative Party government of Alberta has passed new legislations that make it easier for private entities to establish charter schools in communities with pre-existing public schools.
Bill 8 (passed in fall 2019) removed the previous cap of 15 charter schools permitted to operate in Alberta.
Bill 15, or the Choice in Education Act (effective Sept. 2020), allowed new charter school applications to bypass public school board adjudication.
These changes expedite the privatization of education in Alberta, such that the Minister can approve charter school establishment without transparency or public accountability. We don't know who these charters are awarded to, their affiliations, and how much public funding will go towards funding these exclusive institutions.

Since these legislations came into effect, 3 new charter schools have been approved by the Minister of Education without adequate public notification or transparency:
1) STEM Innovation Academy (Calgary AB)
2) New Humble Charter (Calmar AB)
3) Calgary Classical Charter Academy (Calgary AB)

The Calgary Classical Charter Academy was only reported in right-wing outlets and their application was not widely publicized by the Ministry. This notice dated January 11, 2022 was posted on their website only after approval was granted:

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The Government of Alberta now lists 16 Charter School Authorities with relatively little information about their Ministry application time window, approval evaluation process, or reporting parameters:

Quick Facts about Charter Schools in Alberta:

• The UCP government’s Choice in Education Act (Bill 15) went into effect September 1, 2020. This legislation removed the requirement for charter school proposals to go through the local public school board, now the applications can go directly to the Minister of Education

• Bill 8 (2019) already removed the cap on charter schools (previously Alberta had a cap of 15 Charter School Authorities)
• Charter school operators are exempt from public board oversight and report directly to the ministry of Education 

• Charter schools do not need to hire unionized teachers or staff (teachers not part of the Alberta Teachers Assoc.)
• Charter schools receive 100% per-student instructional funding from government but are exempt from requiring open democratic elections for their governance boards (use of public funds without public transparency)
• Alberta is the only province in Canada allowing a charter school system
• A charter school authority can operate multiple campuses or sites so the number of physical schools is actually larger 

We advocate that:

• Public, separate, francophone boards release to general public charter school application notifications from the Ministry (notice still required as per Section 24 of the Education Act)
• Since charter schools receive public funding, societies that receive charters should make their granted charter public record
• Regulations tighten around charter school meeting the mandate of innovation through regular analysis (they should not exist purely to circumvent rules while providing redundant programming that already exists in the public system)
• Charters make their financial records public & transparent