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.
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The Government of Alberta now lists 21 Charter School Authorities operating 36 schools with relatively little information about their Ministry application time window, approval evaluation process, or reporting parameters. (March 2024)

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 but report directly to the ministry of Education 

• Charter schools do not need to hire unionized teachers or staff 
• 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 and funding 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)
• Charter agreements should be posted publicly on government resources