Alberta’s $8.6B New Schools Plan Will Fund Charter and Private School Construction as Part of ‘School Choice for Parents’

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides stand together during the swearing in of her cabinet in Edmonton, June 9, 2023. Jason Franson/The Canadian Press

Alberta has rolled out an $8.6 billion plan to speed up the building of new schools–public, private, and charter–in response to rising student enrolment driven by rapid population growth.

The new School Construction Accelerator Program will create more than 200,000 new student spaces over the next seven years, the province said in a Sept. 18 press release.

Part of the funding will go toward a Charter School Accelerator Program designed to add 12,500 new charter school student spaces over the next four years, Premier Danielle Smith said in a Sept. 17 announcement.

The province will also start a school capital pilot program to encourage the creation of new spaces in non-profit private schools.

Smith said the funding is part of the province’s commitment “to the principle of providing school choice for parents.”

The province said charter schools play an important role in Alberta’s education system by offering unique teaching styles and programming.

Independent schools, for their part, offer “specialized learning supports as well as religious and cultural programming to support parental and educational choice,” said the release.

Smith said the creation of new non-profit private school spaces will come at a “reduced per-student cost to taxpayers.”

Although the fund allocation for each type of school was not specified, the premier said the spending would depend on student enrolment.

The progress of the projects will depend on how quickly school boards and municipalities can have land ready for construction, the government says.

The opposition NDP are asking the government to provide details on how much funding is being allocated for private schools, while saying more support should be provided to public schools.

“The vast majority of Albertans choose public education for their kids. Albertans have never before been asked to pay for the construction of private schools,” NDP MLA and education critics Amanda Chapman said on Sept. 19.

“The Premier needs to come clean on how many taxpayer dollars will build schools for the privileged few.”

Smith said in a press conference on Sept. 18 that her government wants to put all school options on the same level playing field.

“With us owning the construction, owning the project, that allows for us to be able to look at a number of different unique approaches to be able to support independent charter as well as our two major school boards, public and private,” she said.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said the government is still in the process of developing the pilot project.

Budget Increase

The $8.6 billion plan is a fourfold increase from the $2.1 budget originally budgeted for new school construction and modernization over the next three years and is necessary because soaring student enrolment is straining the entire education system, the province said.

Starting next year, the construction accelerator program will allow Alberta to “kick-start up to 30 new schools and as many as eight modernizations and replacement schools every year for the next three years,” according to officials.

Smith asked municipalities and school boards to collaborate on having sites prepared or permitted to begin construction of more schools before the end of the school year.