Again I reiterate that public schools have ONE source of funding: the public. Private schools do not. Public funding needs to stay in the public system which is accessible to all children, especially during an under-funding and overcrowding crisis. Private schools are not reliant on public funding to provide the service they do.
You can argue up and down about any value private schooling can bring to the field of education, but all of it is moot until public education is properly funded.
Functional society requires that public social issues be viewed through the lens of the vulnerable and marginalized, not the privileged.
The research in these images are from 2022. Jason Kenney was ramping up the privatization of public education with his misleadingly named "Choice for Education" legislation, but it was at that time nowhere near the exorbitant levels of public funding for private education, or rock bottom public education funding that we have reached under Danielle Smith.
"With the spotlight finally being aimed at Alberta's most-generous-in-Canada public funding for private schools,* we are seeing lots of people attempting to justify what is going on. One of the most common refrains is that student with disabilities will be negatively affected if public funds are pulled from private education. But let's just think about it for a moment: those funds withdrawn from the private school system wouldn't disappear: they would go to the public school system!
Why would that be better?
- Because Public Schools are accessible to everyone, without any additional dollars required, and there are lots of special needs families WHO CAN'T AFFORD PRIVATE EDUCATION right now!
- Because the public school system cannot reject students based on disabilities while the private school system can and often does!
Public schools welcome everyone, and they don't ask for your credit card.
*while public schools continue to receive the lowest per student funding in the country!
Thanks again to Robyn for the killer graphics and to Curtis Riep for the research. We are in your debt!"
- Peter MacKay
#abpoli #cdnpoli #education #strike #union#Solidarity #unionstrong