Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolven
Funding private schools is nothing more than a misguided, ideologically driven "fund the rich" concept that comes out of most conservative governments as a way to create a tiered 'have' and 'have-not' system so that only the 'right people' can get a good education and the 'wrong people' can get left behind.
Not only does Alberta fund private schools more than any other province in Canada, Alberta also gives grants and one-off funding to private schools that are not tracked within the same budget line items making it harder to keep up with the degree in which private schools are syphoning off public money.
On top of that, Alberta is also the ONLY province to fund charter schools and is one of 3 provinces (and two territories) to still fully fund catholic schools.
That is a lot of ways that Alberta is taking money away from public education, which was forgivable when the government funded the public system much better and helped drive it to be one of the best public systems in the world. Now that the UCP is attacking the public education system it is time to rethink all of these methods of undermining public education. Personally, I think I would defund charter and catholic school before private but I do think reducing or eliminating private school funding with public dollars is the right move.
In the end though, the UCP is forcing this conflict and the petition to defund private schools is very clearly about fighting a corrupt government than "eating the rich" but if you want to misunderstand the situation and take it personally then that's your prerogative.
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Catholic schools, apart from a single private school, are public schools. They are funded the same way. They take kids with all the needs. If schools have space, they cannot turn any students away. By and large, Catholic schools have operated better in fiscal terms than their public counterparts.
Public Catholic schools are not part of the problem here. They are not draining resources away from other public schools.