Standing up for public education

By Vamini Selvanandan

Universal access to publicly-funded healthcare is a source of national pride and a social policy that Canadians are willing to go to great lengths to defend. But are we equally prepared to stand up for our public education system?

Last month, Danielle Smith’s UCP government invoked the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to order teachers back to work. They hijacked the democratic process and forced the legislation through without any real debate. This kind of authoritarian behaviour is uncannily similar to how politics are currently being done in the United States

Alberta’s Back to School Act violates teachers’ rights to freedom of association and expression and jeopardizes the rights of all workers to collective bargaining. An attack on teachers' constitutional rights is an attack on the rights of every Albertan.

Alberta is a rich province, but we operate on a model of scarcity both in healthcare and in education. Over the past several years, provincial funding for schools has not kept pace with inflation or population growth. The results are poor learning environments for our children due to crowded classrooms, not enough teachers and inadequate infrastructure.

Alberta has the lowest funding rate for public school students and the highest for private schools among the provinces. Increases in funding for private schools has outstripped increases to public school budgets, leading to tax dollars being diverted at the expense of public education. Ontario, by contrast, provides no public funding to private schools.

A single well-funded public system will do far more to support all children in Alberta, and families would not be forced to turn away from their neighbourhood school to seek out different learning environments for their children. Providing public funding for charter and private schools to compete with public schools only undermines the efficiencies of a single high-performing system.

Public schools are an effective means of delivering education.  Research from the United States shows that public schools outperform private schools when adjusted for socioeconomic status. 

Being free and accessible to all, public schools reach and benefit everyone regardless of race, religion or socioeconomic status because education is the great equalizer, reducing income inequities and breaking the cycle of poverty. 

Albertans need to defend this essential public institution. A Calgary teacher has applied to Elections Alberta to launch the Alberta Funds Public Schools petition, which needs 177,732 signatures by February 11, 2026, to trigger a referendum on ending public funding for private schools.

Teachers are standing up—for children, for fairness, and for the future of public education. We should stand with them. Albertans need to act: sign petitions and contact their MLAs to vigorously defend our public institutions and our democratic rights. Our government must hear clearly that we value every child’s right to quality public education and every person’s freedom and constitutional rights.

If we do not act now, we risk losing the very foundations of the Albertan way of life.

Vamini Selvanandan is a rural family physician and public health practitioner in Alberta.