Funding for Private Schools (December 7)
Mr. Chase: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Premier and the Minister of Education have both spoken in favour of eliminating provincial achievement tests.
Earlier this week the minister admitted that these tests do not recognize the number of ESL and special-needs students in a school and that organizations like the Fraser Institute use this information to scare parents into choosing other options for their children than our inclusive public education system.
To the Premier: given your caucus’s comments and that private schools traditionally score at the top of the achievement test rankings as a result of excluding ESL and special-needs students, why not along with eliminating . . .
The Speaker: The hon. the Premier, please.
Ms Redford: Mr. Speaker, it’s been very clear over this year that there is incredible frustration with standardized tests. It’s been reflected in my comments. It’s been reflected in the comments of the Minister of Education. We are currently in the process, as the Minister of Education goes around the province consulting on the new Education Act, of ensuring that we’re reflecting the fact that Albertans think that these don’t actually allow us to measure the outcomes that we need to.
The Speaker: The hon. member.
Mr. Chase: Thank you. Again to the Premier: given that the Webber Academy has $33 million in cash and land assets and that they are clearly not interested in providing an inclusive education system, why is this government giving them another $4 million of taxpayers’ money this year when you’ve bankrupted the public school systems by depleting board surpluses?
Ms Redford: Mr. Speaker, whatever private schools may choose to do in terms of the decisions that they make with respect to their assets is one thing. What we know as a provincial government is that we’re committed to a public education system. One of the things that we have talked about consistently as a party over the past 12 months, going through the leadership campaign that we did, is ensuring that we did not have a second-class public education system in this province, and we will not.
The Speaker: The hon. member.
Mr. Chase: Thank you very much. My final question to the Premier: given that despite provincial funding some private schools charge parents extra tuition to accept special-needs children, how can the minister defend subsidizing this exclusive and elitist two-tier educational system?
Ms Redford: Mr. Speaker, one of the great things about this province is that we offer Albertans choice. We ensure that Albertans can have choice with respect to how their children are educated. Our responsibility as a government, our responsibility as public trustees of government expenses and of revenue that’s collected from Albertans is to ensure that we deliver a public education system that allows every child in Alberta to thrive, and we’re going to do that.
Alberta Hansard, December 7, 2011