Alberta’s $8.6B New Schools Plan Will Fund Charter and Private School Construction as Part of ‘School Choice for Parents’

Alberta has rolled out an $8.6 billion plan to speed up the building of new schools–public, private, and charter–in response to rising student enrolment driven by rapid population growth.
The province will also start a school capital pilot program to encourage the creation of new spaces in non-profit private schools.
Smith said the funding is part of the province’s commitment “to the principle of providing school choice for parents.”
Independent schools, for their part, offer “specialized learning supports as well as religious and cultural programming to support parental and educational choice,” said the release.
Smith said the creation of new non-profit private school spaces will come at a “reduced per-student cost to taxpayers.”
Although the fund allocation for each type of school was not specified, the premier said the spending would depend on student enrolment.
The progress of the projects will depend on how quickly school boards and municipalities can have land ready for construction, the government says.
The opposition NDP are asking the government to provide details on how much funding is being allocated for private schools, while saying more support should be provided to public schools.
“The Premier needs to come clean on how many taxpayer dollars will build schools for the privileged few.”
“With us owning the construction, owning the project, that allows for us to be able to look at a number of different unique approaches to be able to support independent charter as well as our two major school boards, public and private,” she said.
Smith asked municipalities and school boards to collaborate on having sites prepared or permitted to begin construction of more schools before the end of the school year.