May 16, 2022

The importance of accountability and transparency highlighted in new PSBAA research

In April, the Public School Boards’ Association (PSBAA) released new research that again raises the importance of accountability and transparency in K-12 education, and how schools in Alberta are spending taxpayer dollars.

Over the past two years, Curtis Riep, PhD. has produced a series of research papers for the PSBAA, including research on charter schools and home schools. His latest work on private schools reveals that the 18 most expensive private schools in Alberta—which charge tuition rates ranging from $12,000 to $35,000 or more—also received more than $43 million in Alberta government funding in 2021 alone.

Why is this research important? Accountability and transparency are key values for the PSBAA, and for public school trustees. There are six education systems in Alberta: public; separate; francophone; charter; home school and private. Each of these systems has received their share of more than $8.2 billion in funding for the 2021-2022 school year to operate the K-12 schools in their jurisdiction.

This funding is taxpayer money. Each taxpayer deserves a full accounting of how their hard-earned tax dollars are spent each year. Private schools do not have the same level of accountability and transparency as public schools, separate schools and francophone schools. We believe if they are receiving taxpayer money—and in the report it illustrates how much taxpayer money they received, just in 2021—they should be as accountable to the public who funds them as the public, separate and francophone school systems.

Commissioning this type of research and reporting on it is important because it helps inform school board trustees’ decisions about how to allocate education funding and how to advocate for the students and school communities they represent. We have more research papers in the works that we plan to release later this year. Our goal is to provide research on all six education systems in Alberta. Last year, we also commissioned research on the history and current level of K-12 education funding in the province. All of these research reports are valuable reference tools for our member school board trustees that assist them in making informed decisions.

All of Curtis Riep’s reports are posted on the PSBAA website at:
https://public-schools.ab.ca/research/.

Dennis MacNeil,
PSBAA President