Originally published in the September 2018 issue of Alberta Views magazine.
In the September 2018 issue of Alberta Views magazine, Public Interest Alberta's executive director Joel French participated in the magazine's ongoing "Dialogue" series with the Edmonton Journal columnist David Staples to debate the question of whether private schools should get public funding. An excerpt is below.
"Our province has Canada’s most generous subsidies for private schools. Setting aside those private schools serving children with special needs, many of which fill gaps in our public systems, the Alberta government spends $110-million per year subsidizing private schools. This would be far better spent supporting students in public schools.
Parents enrolling children in private schools choose to opt out of their local public, Catholic or francophone system. They certainly have the right to do so, but they shouldn’t expect the public to fund that choice. Similarly, public funding makes library books available to anyone at no charge. Some people instead buy books from a bookstore, but they don’t expect the government to subsidize those purchases."
Read the full article.
