Alberta charter schools

Background


Alberta charter schools are a special type of public school which have a greater degree of autonomy than normal public schools, allowing them to offer programs that are significantly different from regular public schools operated by district school boards. Charter schools report directly to the province, bypassing their local district school board, may not exceed their assigned quota of students without provincial permission. They are also unique, in the sense that they may reject students for admission and can charge additional fees in the form of school uniforms, bus services, extracurricular activities, and more.

As of 2022-23, roughly 11,000 students were enrolled in charter schools (1.4% of total student population), compared to 508,478 in public schools (66.3%), 177,633 in separate schools (23.1%), and 40,676 in private schools (5.3%).

Alberta charter schools are publicly-funded institutions run by private school associations or authorities that must be registered non-profit societies. The charter schools theoretically cannot have any religious affiliations, can only charge additional & optional tuition, and cannot operate on a for-profit basis. The teachers must be certified, and the curriculum must follow the approved provincial curriculum - though are permitted to adopt additional, independent educational programs and philosophies into their programming. Alberta, which passed enabling legislation in 1994 (three years after the first charter school opened in the United States in Minnesota), remains the only province in Canada that allows charter schools.

Charter schools are represented by The Association of Alberta Public Charter Schools (TAAPCS).

Supporters claim that charter schools offer greater "freedom in choice of education" for parents of students. They also claim that charter schools improve the public education system by offering higher-quality education and supporting disadvantaged students.

Critics have argued that charter schools 'Americanize' the public K-12 education system, and effectively allows privately-operated institutions to receive public funding - though with less oversight and more freedom in their programming. Public education advocates have also noted how charter schools undermine the public education system by subsidizing a market for separate and segregated educational systems using public funds, instead of increasing funding to regular K-12 institutions.

Current charters
As of July 2024, there are 37 approved charter schools operated by 22 authorities. The number of charter schools was previously limited to a maximum of 15, but Jason Kenney's UCP government eliminated this cap effective September 2020.

Former charters
Three charter school have closed:
 * The Global Learning Academy, in Calgary, was granted a charter in 1996, and with 480 students was the largest charter school in the province. However, mismanagement and financial problems resulted in the suspension of its founding principal in December 1997, the replacement of its board of directors with a trustee in January 1998, and the revocation of the school's charter before the start of the 1998–1999 school year.
 * The Moberly Hall Charter School, the only charter school hosted by a Roman Catholic school board, operated in Fort McMurray from 1997 to 2007 before voluntarily closing because of declining enrolment and rising costs.
 * The Mundare Charter School was established in Mundare by parents in 1997 when the town's elementary/junior high school closed, but operated for only one year. It was absorbed into the local public school board as an alternative elementary school after low enrolment resulted in financial difficulty.