Collateral Damage: Caught in the Crossfire in the War Against Funding Top-Tier Schools

Collateral Damage: 

Caught in the Crossfire in the War Against Funding Top-Tier Schools

December 10, 2025

The petition question asks, “Do You Think The Government of Alberta Should End Its Current Practice of Allocating Public Funds to Accredited Independent (Private) Schools?” The petition, filed by Calgary high school teacher Alicia Taylor, and approved by Elections Alberta on October 7, sounds simple enough. The reality is that presenting this as such a simple question fails to recognize that there are many kinds of independent schools which exist for many different reasons.

The Alberta Funds Public Schools web page, which promotes this petition, prominently displays a video where a comparison is made between Webber Academy, an elite and expensive private school, and Patrick Airlie School, a public school in a working class Calgary neighbourhood. The impression created is that government funding flows to schools that are designed for rich people. To be fair, this is not entirely incorrect. However, it is not the whole story. People who are asked to sign a petition should be presented with the whole story.

The Truth About Independent Schools

Broadly speaking, independent schools in Alberta fall into one of three categories; religious schools, special emphasis schools, and top tier or elite schools. While the proponents of this petition target all funded independent schools, their argument only shines a light on the top tier schools, such as Webber Academy. If the video is correct, tuition for an elementary student at Webber Academy is $16,300 per year. Other top tier schools similarly charge high tuition fees. It can be argued that if the goal is school choice for parents, only people with the financial means can make the choice to attend one of these schools. However, the posers of the petition question did not choose to aim their political guns at elite top tier schools. Rather they decided to carpet bomb a whole host of independent schools, many of which look a lot more like Patrick Arlie School than they do like Webber Academy.

Among the apparent proponents of the petition is the ATA (see Petition questions public funding for private schools | Alberta Teachers' Association). I happen to be a member of the ATA. I don’t recall giving the ATA leadership a mandate to take this position on behalf of the membership. I would certainly expect that they would give the membership a full picture of the issue if they seek teacher participation in the petition. This full picture should include an understanding of the life of a teacher in an independent school.

At this point I want to interject to address a comment that was made on one of the facebook pages where this article appears.  The commenter said, "The ATA has longstanding policy about how they believe schools should be funded. All policy is generated, debated, and voted on by members at the annual assembly."  The commenter is correct that the ATA Administrative and Educational Policy  10.2.1.1 states, "The Government of Alberta should not fund private schools. [1981, 2019]"  I should have known about this policy.  I apologize for the omission.

However, the commenter's objection does not completely negate my point.  This Annual Representative Assembly (ARA)is made up of about 425 delegates from locals and the 20 members of the Association’s executive body, the Provincial Executive Council.  The question remains, to what extent is this assembly actually representative of the 50,000 teachers in the Association?  If the President and the Provincial Executive Council wish to know of the positions of the rank and file teachers in the province, it stands to reason that they would engage the strength of the army of school representatives at their disposal in order to understand how to best represent the teachers in their schools; directing each of them to constantly survey their staffs on every important issue.  To the best of my knowledge this sort of representation is rare.  Therefore, my contention that the membership is not actively consulted on such policy development and approvals still has credibility, although admittedly my argument is diminished by the commenter.  (update December 12, 2025)

 

This is Personal

Prior to 2012 when the school where I work became a Christian Alternative Program in a public jurisdiction, I was an employee of an Independent Christian School. The Society that operated the school previously received 70% of many of the operating amounts that public jurisdictions receive, but received no capital funding. Hence, it is not precisely correct to say that these schools receive 70% of what public schools receive. The Society charged a tuition fee that was far less than the 30% required to reach public school levels of funding. Much of the shortfall was made up by fundraising and undercompensating teachers. In contrast to many top tier schools, my school adhered to a policy that no-one would be denied a Christian education due to a lack of ability to pay.

The independent school teachers that we are talking about meet the same standards as public school teachers. They hold the same certifications. They make the same sacrifices. They love their students just as much. These teachers, who the ATA ought to advocate for simply because they are fellow teachers, now find themselves every bit as much in the crosshairs of the proponents of this petition as the presumably well-paid teachers at Webber Academy.

When, in 2012, our school migrated to a public school jurisdiction and our teachers became members of the ATA, the typical teacher in our school received a 60% raise. This is the situation faced by many teachers in independent schools who make sacrifices so that parents can afford to choose a religious education or a special emphasis education. Today, we continue to offer very much the same education that we did in 2012 but our teachers now receive a far fairer salary and the burden on parents to pay is greatly reduced. Not every school has the option of entering into an agreement with a public jurisdiction. We are among the fortunate ones who have a public school partner that encourages educational choice for parents.

The True Victims

By my count there are at least 60 religious independent schools in Alberta. I doubt if any of them compares to Webber Academy, nor do they want to. There are many more special emphasis schools which offer a unique approach to education or focus on the provision of special education. These schools are the victims in a petition which seeks to wipe out all funded independent schools. A great majority of these schools are devoted to making school choice affordable for everyone. These schools are not schools for the rich. A simple visit to any of them will provide ample evidence of that.

And yet, the web page says, “Our petition asks Albertans to speak clearly their demand that their public tax dollars go to public education, not to private enterprise.” Private enterprise? Most of these schools are operated by non-profit societies and registered charities.

The cold reality is that if government funding is withdrawn from independent schools, the elite schools will have the means to continue to operate and possibly suffer very little impact on their enrollment. The true victims will be the teachers, students, and parents of the more modest religious and special emphasis schools which typically are operated by a registered Society which struggles year to year to keep the school afloat.

If you wish to protest the provision of government funding for schools which only the rich can afford, do that. But please, do it in a way that demonstrates care not to hurt teachers and parents who are simply trying to do something good. Do it in a way that is ethical towards the folks of modest means who struggle to pay for an educational choice that fits their family. Do it in a way that demonstrates that teachers who lead the campaign are learned people who do their research before seeking to lead Albertans toward a referendum.

177,732 signatures are required to trigger a referendum. Please do not sign this petition.

This article, post, op-ed or whatever it is, represents no-one's thoughts or positions but my own.  Don't blame my employer, my wife, my dog, or the United Conservative Party.  It's all on me.