Funding for Private Schools (March 11)
Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The noble mandate of the public school system is to provide the best education possible for all children regardless of their ability, their economic status, their creed or culture.
Under this government’s guise of choice the line of demarcation between public, private, and charter schools has been blurred to the detriment of the public school system.
To the minister: what is your justification for publicly funding exclusive, tuition-charging private schools and religiously restrictive charter schools?
Mr. Hancock: Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe we do fund tuition in private schools.
With respect to charter schools there are a number of reasons why charter school exist. As long as they fit the purpose of their charter and meet the requirements to be renewed on I think it’s a five-year term, they are public schools, and they’re funded like public schools.
Mr. Chase: To the minister again. How is it that Springbank’s athletic, elite Edge private school is permitted to receive full public per-pupil funding and charge restrictively high tuition rates while hiding out under the mantle of the geographically distant Grande Prairie public board?
Mr. Hancock: Well, the short answer, Mr. Speaker, is that it’s not. Grande Prairie has announced that they have an arrangement with the Edge school. If, in fact, they do bring the Edge school into the public system as an alternative program, it will be considered as such, and if it fits the requirement to be an alternate program in the public system, it will be funded as an alternate program in the public system. But it’s not funded as a private school, and it’s not funded now.
Mr. Chase: Again, we’re turning around as opposed to coming across with the answers.
Tuition. Can they charge tuition and still be a public school?
The Speaker: The hon. minister. [interjection] Whoa. You had the question and no more preamble. The hon. minister. [interjections] The hon. minister has the floor.
Mr. Hancock: Well, Mr. Speaker, I’m not dodging the question at all. The short answer is that we are not paying tuition for students at Edge school. If they are a private school and if they charge tuition, they’re not a public school, so they don’t get funded like a public school. As a private school they’re eligible for either 60 or 70 per cent of the operating funding of a public school, depending on whether they’ve agreed to adhere to the reporting and accountability requirements. As a private school they’re not eligible for the public school funding, but if they become an alternate program in the public school, that’s a different situation. Then they’re not a private school.
Alberta Hansard, March 11, 2010