September 30, 2020

Concerned about the expansion of charter schools in Alberta? You should be

Recently, the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta called on the province’s Auditor General to conduct a to conduct a full review of the educational, administrative and financial benefits of charter schools.

The PSBAA has also released a discussion paper entitled Privatizing Public Choice: the past, present and future of charter schools in Alberta. The paper was written by Ph.D. candidate Curtis Riep and commissioned by PSBAA.

We released this discussion paper because we believe it’s time to have a serious discussion about the effectiveness of charter schools – given that they are funded by taxpayer dollars – and the fact that we believe they have not been nearly as effective as originally intended.

Historically, charter schools were designed to encourage learning innovation that could be developed in a charter school and transferred to the entire public system if successful. There was also a limit on the number of charter schools and the length of time they could operate – again, so that innovation could flourish.

However, the reality has been quite different. Charter schools have continued to operate over the long term – in some cases, like New Horizons school in Sherwood Park, taking over a former school property, and adding significantly to the overall administrative cost.

The government is looking at expanding the formation of charter schools for vocational training. We believe this unnecessarily duplicates the significant work of public schools that already provide trades education. In addition to the unnecessary duplication, this direction changes the original intent of why charter schools were formed.

PSBAA is concerned about the potential for a proliferation of charter schools for several other reasons.

One of the most important is that charter schools are not required to be governed by locally-elected public school trustees. As a result, they do not have the same level of direct accountability to the local communities in which they operate. We believe this level of accountability to the local community is what sets apart school trustees and is one of the key reasons our work is so important: we are closest to the people most impacted by the decisions we make, so we need to be connected to and listening to our constituents.

Charter schools can now establish themselves as a charter school system. They can apply directly to the Minister of Education to operate, bypassing the accountability of a local, publicly-elected school board, and have their academic and fiscal operations reviewed by department officials in Alberta Education. This adds to the red tape and administration costs to run yet another school system in Alberta, when there are already five other school administration systems, with their duplication of services – more than any other Canadian province.

Charter schools, despite the fact that they are publicly funded by our tax dollars, can refuse to admit any student who does not meet their entrance requirements, just like private schools. Because they operate more like a private school, charter schools do not guarantee additional parent and student choice in education.

It’s important to note that charter schools receive 100 per cent of the per-student funding that public school boards receive. Although public schools are not permitted to charge tuition fees, many charter schools do. In many cases, these fees help improve the teacher – student ratio in the classroom, an advantage our public schools do not have.

Further, charter schools are often located in space that is provided by school boards at reduced rates or no cost at all, and charter schools do not pay the standardized rates for their educators, based on the rates set out by the Alberta Teachers’ Association that are dependent on the experience and education of their teachers.

But we’ll leave the last word on this subject to the author of PSBAA’s discussion paper: Ph.D. candidate Curtis Riep.

“Efforts to expand charter schools in Alberta follow an American model that has largely resulted in systemic inefficiencies, inequities, and segregation,” said Riep. “They also raise the issue of a democratic deficit since these institutions receive public funding yet are privately managed. And, despite being sold on the idea they will increase parental choice, selection protocols and supplemental fees associated with attending charter schools represent impediments to real choice.”

If you’re concerned that charter schools are expanding to the detriment of public schools – and you should be – contact your local MLA and public school board to express your concerns.

For the full report or the media release, please go to the PSBAA website, and click on the PSBAA News, then News and Announcements page or go to: www.public-schools.ab.ca/news-announcements.