Alberta Funds Public Schools: Teacher-Led Petition Falls Short by 54K
Petition to end private school funding falls short in Alberta.
EDMONTON, AB — A teacher-led push to strip public dollars from Alberta's private schools fell short today, missing the finish line by 54,726 signatures. Calgary high school teacher Alicia Taylor and a small convoy of volunteers delivered 123,006 names to Elections Alberta headquarters this afternoon—impressive on paper, but not enough to force the question onto a ballot.
The petition, titled "Alberta Funds Public Schools," needed 177,732 verified signatures under Alberta's Citizen Initiative Act—a 10% threshold based on the 2023 provincial election turnout. Taylor had 120 days to collect them. The clock expired today at 5 p.m.
"We fell short, but we made the conversation impossible to ignore," Taylor told reporters outside the Elections Alberta office. She's not just a clipboard warrior—she's a district rep on the Alberta Teachers' Association governing council and launched this campaign in September 2025, just as teachers across the province were gearing up for a fall strike over classroom overcrowding and crumbling resources.
The Friction: Who Wanted This Dead
The petition asked a simple question: "Should the Government of Alberta end its current practice of allocating public funds to accredited independent (private) schools?" The answer from Premier Danielle Smith's government was a hard no before the ink even dried. Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has repeatedly defended the province's 70% funding model for private schools, calling it "parental choice" and a taxpayer bargain.
Here's the money: Alberta's 2025-28 fiscal plan allocates $461 million to accredited private schools this year, climbing to $506 million in 2026-27 and $544 million by 2027-28. That's roughly 5% of the total K-12 education budget, which sits at $9.8 billion for 2025-26. Private school advocates, led by the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta (AISCA), argue their schools educate kids at 30% less cost per student and take pressure off the public system.
John Jagersma, AISCA's executive director, called the petition "disappointing" and a distraction from the real issues. "These funds don't come out of public school budgets—they follow the student," he said in a statement last fall.
But public school advocates like Alberta School Councils' Association and Support Our Students Alberta see it differently: that's half a billion dollars that could fix leaky roofs, hire EAs, and shrink class sizes. A Think HQ poll from November 2025 found 59% of Albertans would vote to end private school funding if given the chance.
The Players Behind the Push
Taylor didn't work alone. The Alberta Teachers' Association, Alberta Federation of Labour, and a volunteer army including Nancy Beasley Hosker and Todd Tanasichuk fanned out across the province collecting signatures. Alberta NDP education critic Amanda Chapman threw her weight behind the effort, hammering the UCP for underfunding public schools while enrolment explodes.
The timing wasn't accidental. The petition launched October 14, 2025, right as teachers walked off the job in a province-wide strike. The optics were sharp: classrooms bursting at the seams while the government cut checks to private academies.
What Happens Now
Elections Alberta will verify the 123,006 signatures over the coming weeks, but the math is brutal—there's no path to the 177,732 threshold. Without it, the petition dies on the vine. No referendum. No vote. The UCP's funding model stays intact.
Minister Nicolaides has acknowledged "rising classroom complexity" and blamed federal immigration policies for ballooning enrolment. But he's offered no new dollars beyond the existing 4.4% funding bump announced in Budget 2024. For public school advocates, that's not enough.
Taylor says the campaign isn't over. "We've started a conversation the government can't silence," she said. Whether that conversation translates into real policy change—or just more noise—depends on what happens in the next budget cycle.
The petition fell short. The pressure on Smith's government just got heavier.
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