About the Progressive Trustee Hub
Alberta’s local elections, including school board elections, will take place in October 2025. Now, more than ever, public education advocates must join forces and encourage progressive candidates to run for School Board Trustee seats. Public education is under deliberate attack through intentional defunding and access to K-12 education is being denied through harmful policies that erode universality.
In our current context, it is critical that believers of public education are supported and plugged into a mutually supportive community. We must ensure that a diverse representation of well-informed leaders are democratically elected to positions of power on Alberta’s public school boards.
The Progressive Trustee Hub is a coalition of advocates, allies, parents, and concerned citizens. We are a connector hub with the goal of bridging passionate candidates to other value-aligned, like-minded candidates to form a wider long-term community of advocates. Public education is about the collective good and this Hub's goal is to provide a conduit of election-related information through allied strategizing, knowledge sharing, and idea exchange.
We are united by the shared belief that public education is a vehicle for creating a fairer, more just, and strong democracy where every child has a chance to succeed.
As a coalition, we share these core values regarding public education and access to education:
Interested in running for School Board Trustee?
Email the Progressive Trustee Hub: run4publiceducation[at]gmail.com.
For more information about partner organizations:
Support Our Students Alberta: www.supportourstudents.ca
Edmonton Public School Advocacy Network: www.epscnetwork.com
Public Interest Alberta: www.pialberta.org
Note: The Progressive Trustee Hub is a community for idea and information exchange, especially pertaining to current education issues. We do not explicitly endorse campaigns or provide campaign funding.
Alberta’s local elections, including school board elections, will take place in October 2025. Now, more than ever, public education advocates must join forces and encourage progressive candidates to run for School Board Trustee seats. Public education is under deliberate attack through intentional defunding and access to K-12 education is being denied through harmful policies that erode universality.
In our current context, it is critical that believers of public education are supported and plugged into a mutually supportive community. We must ensure that a diverse representation of well-informed leaders are democratically elected to positions of power on Alberta’s public school boards.
The Progressive Trustee Hub is a coalition of advocates, allies, parents, and concerned citizens. We are a connector hub with the goal of bridging passionate candidates to other value-aligned, like-minded candidates to form a wider long-term community of advocates. Public education is about the collective good and this Hub's goal is to provide a conduit of election-related information through allied strategizing, knowledge sharing, and idea exchange.
We are united by the shared belief that public education is a vehicle for creating a fairer, more just, and strong democracy where every child has a chance to succeed.
As a coalition, we share these core values regarding public education and access to education:
- Public education is a public good because it serves the public interest
- Every child must be able to access high quality public education as it is an enshrined basic human right
- Every child that enters the public system should receive accommodations they require to succeed
- Public education should be funded adequately and robustly by public funds
- Public schools should be open and safe for all students regardless of ability, race, language, socioeconomic status, gender identity or any other attribute
- Public funds should not be used to subsidize private education
- Education workers are vital to student success and they deserve to earn a living wage
- All students should feel safe and protected at school, and accepted just as they are
- Public education is defined as education institutions that are publicly governed, publicly accessible, publicly funded, and accountable to both the local and broader community. Private and charter schools do not fall under this definition.
Interested in running for School Board Trustee?
Email the Progressive Trustee Hub: run4publiceducation[at]gmail.com.
For more information about partner organizations:
Support Our Students Alberta: www.supportourstudents.ca
Edmonton Public School Advocacy Network: www.epscnetwork.com
Public Interest Alberta: www.pialberta.org
Note: The Progressive Trustee Hub is a community for idea and information exchange, especially pertaining to current education issues. We do not explicitly endorse campaigns or provide campaign funding.
Candidate Handbook: Eligibility, Campaign, and Important Deadlines
Download the Candidate Handbook here.
Stay tuned for Information Sessions on K-12 Education Issues hosted by the Progressive Trustee Hub:
1. Funding & Finance
4. Learning Conditions & School Resources
5. Working Conditions & Compensation
6. Inclusion
8. Curriculum, Evaluation & Standardized Testing
1. Funding & Finance
- Provincial K-12 education funding has not kept pace with inflation, enrolment growth, and rising costs (including insurance premiums)
- Alberta’s public education system is the lowest funded per-capita in the nation
- Alberta’s education funding formula (weighted moving average) penalizes growing school divisions
- Funding shortfall means too many students currently enrolled in or about to enter the public education system are unfunded
- School boards forced to cut teacher and education worker positions due to inadequate funding envelopes from the province
- Deliberate erosion of the public education system to create a market for privatization and charter school system expansion
- Every four years, Alberta diverts over a billion dollars of public funds to subsidize private and charter schools
- Alberta is the only province with charter schools
- Charter schools are privately governed, privately managed schools who do not admit all students yet receive full allotment of per-student funding
- "School Choice” is euphemism for subsidizing schools outside of the public system that can pick and choose their students
- Connecting the Dots Between Extreme Ideologies, "Parent Choice" and Education Privatization in Alberta and Canada
- Desperate need for new schools in growing neighbourhoods
- Metro school divisions out of high school space
- Billions of dollars in deferred building maintenance and modernization
4. Learning Conditions & School Resources
- Alberta classrooms are overcrowded and ballooning way beyond manageable levels
- Public schools no longer have enough in-school support like librarians, counsellors, psychologists, therapists
- Diverse classroom needs combined with size means students are under-supported and receiving less individual attention
- Increasing dependency on school fundraising for school essentials creates inequity among student populations based on parental and community socioeconomic status
5. Working Conditions & Compensation
- Alberta’s education workers have not received adequate wage increases to keep up with rising cost of living
- Education personnel are burnt out, under-resourced at work, growing work load, and forced to live on poverty wages
6. Inclusion
- Students with complex needs denied education access from lack of support
- Program Unit Funding (PUF) cuts eliminated wraparound supports for students with complex needs
- The use of seclusion rooms harms neurodivergent students and infringes on their rights for compassionate care
- Anti-2SLGBTQ+ legislation (Bill 27) endangers students by creating unsafe school environments
- School Resource Officers bring carceral system into schools, disproportionately harms BIPOC students
- Undocumented students or children of migrant workers denied access to education
- Education system must recommit to the Truth & Reconciliation’s Calls to Action
8. Curriculum, Evaluation & Standardized Testing
- Curriculum development must involve teaching and learning experts
- New K-6 Curriculum developmentally inappropriate, Eurocentric, and content-dense
- Addition of excessive evaluation and standardized testing without supporting with additional resources
- Standardized testing is a high-stakes, high-pressure metric of privilege or means, not achievement
External resources for prospective candidates:
Local Authorities Election Act
https://open.alberta.ca/publications/l21
The election law currently governing school board trustee elections in Alberta.
Alberta Education Act
https://open.alberta.ca/publications/e00p3
Legislation governing education, including school board trustee eligibility requirements, trustee responsibilities amongst other legal requirements for trustees and candidates.
Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta
Trustee Brochure (Roles & Responsibilities)
https://public-schools.ab.ca/
Association representing and advocating for Alberta's public school boards and public school education in Alberta.
Alberta School Boards Association
Guide for School Board Trustees
https://www.asba.ab.ca/municipal-elections
Association supporting public, separate, and Francophone school boards, established by Alberta School Boards Association Act.
Local Authorities Election Act
https://open.alberta.ca/publications/l21
The election law currently governing school board trustee elections in Alberta.
Alberta Education Act
https://open.alberta.ca/publications/e00p3
Legislation governing education, including school board trustee eligibility requirements, trustee responsibilities amongst other legal requirements for trustees and candidates.
Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta
Trustee Brochure (Roles & Responsibilities)
https://public-schools.ab.ca/
Association representing and advocating for Alberta's public school boards and public school education in Alberta.
Alberta School Boards Association
Guide for School Board Trustees
https://www.asba.ab.ca/municipal-elections
Association supporting public, separate, and Francophone school boards, established by Alberta School Boards Association Act.