Apparently, you can’t buy peace.
Alberta Premier Smith’s recently announced $8.6 billion School Construction Accelerator Program was intended to do just that. Facing a conflict between parents and ambitious school board bureaucrats and activists, she produced a win-win compromise. She quadrupled (!) the province’s spend on new schools, with a sop to school choice advocates in the form of an undefined capital subsidy for Charter and private schools.
In response, the Public School Boards Association of Alberta (PSBAA) announced their dismay that any funding at all is going to educational choices.
It sounds comical. How seriously can we take any organization that announces their opposition to any spending that doesn’t go to their pockets?
But the conflict is real. On one hand, a continent-wide movement of parents demand a bigger say in their children’s education. On the other, education bureaucrats and unions demand increasing control over children’s education.
For Smith, the conflict is as serious as a heart attack. The radicalism of self-proclaimed “public school advocates” cannot be overstated, nor can their power.
The PSBAA has intervened in court challenges to the constitutionality of Catholic school funding, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so. They’ve mounted very expensive campaigns to get rid of Catholic and independent schools politically. And every year brings another attack from them. Independent schools are just the beginning: Catholic schools are absolutely in the crosshairs.
It isn’t just the PSBAA, of course. The Alberta Teachers’ Association also attacked Smith’s announcement for daring to support educational choice. They had attacked the previous administration as well, spending $1.1 million dollars during the last school board race — and plan to do much more next year. They’re not alone: the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation actively fights elections, and wins. The sheer amount of power levied against independent schools — which are less than 10% of Alberta’s students — is staggering.
There’s more. When the Alberta NDP was held power, it attempted to control what faith-based schools could say, even in their statements of faith. Section 35.1 of Alberta’s Education Act still forces such schools to institute “gay-straight alliance” clubs if a single student asks. It does not matter if it is inappropriate for the school’s religion: culturally appropriate equivalents are not permitted. Government control is utter and complete — if potentially unconstitutional.
As this latter example makes clear, precious little is “private” about Alberta’s private schools. Alberta Charter schools and private schools are non-profit bodies that use the Alberta curriculum, and are subject to the strongest and most arbitrary oversight.
The only real difference between one of these schools is that they are not governed by the public boards and bureaucrats, and their teachers need not be union members. That, of course, is what the PSBAA and its allies resent: these independent schools give them neither power nor money.
Ironically, the independent schools subsidize the public system.
A study commissioned by Parents for Choice in Education showed that independent schools and home education saved Alberta almost $2 billion dollars over eight years. (The amount will be much higher now.) The private schools receive only 70% of the public tuition grant, and neither kind of school has received any money at all for capital costs to date. All the money the province saves goes straight to the public system.
The truth? Self-proclaimed public school advocates aren’t interested. They demand control, in part so they can implement ever more radical agendas.
These radical agendas — which include transgenderism, Critical Race Theory, secret medical referrals, and an attempt to seize the rights of children without due process — have generated widespread resentment.
The Million March for Children, taking place on September 20th, is an example of parents reacting to bureaucratic overreach. Its leaders are the folks the teachers’ unions most despise: parents, especially immigrant parents. Just like last year, we’ll see grassroots parents pulling their kids out of school for it. And we’ll see counterprotests – amazingly well-funded, well-advertised, and professional, paid for by government apparatchiks partly through public unions.
People pulling their children from school for a day of protest is the least of Smith’s problems. Pressure is mounting. Right now, one in ten of Alberta’s K-12 students are in charter, private, or home schools. And with the demand for more independent spaces that Smith’s announcement is acknowledging, it seems like a full quarter of families have either left the public system or are desperately trying to leave. Permanently.
Smith must defuse this conflict: it’s a powder keg whose pressure continues to rise. That’s why she’s offering billions for a win-win solution.
Parents and educational choice groups have accepted Smith’s terms happily. The PSBAA, however, will accept no peace. For them, parents are the enemy, to be defeated at all costs. And the political spending of their allies means that their rejection isn’t just negotiation — it holds a threat, as sharp as a naked blade.
For parents, there is a silver lining. The radicals who have captured the PSBAA and its allies have revealed their true colours. Smith — or anyone who wants to be Premier in more than name — must bring them to heel, sooner or later.
And in the meantime, they can attend the Million March.
John Hilton-O’Brien is the Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education, www.parentchoice.ca
This article originally appeared in the Western Standard on September 20th, 2024. A printable pdf is available.