Alberta’s teachers’ unions are backing a campaign to dismantle the province’s education funding model that allows parents to choose the best schooling for their children, regardless of income — even as those same unions remain on strike over what they describe as a broken, underfunded, and understaffed public education system.

The initiative is led by Calgary teacher and union executive Alicia Taylor, who serves as Vice President of Calgary Public Teachers and teaches science at Joane Cardinal-Schubert High School. Taylor has spent more than a decade in Alberta classrooms and has held leadership roles in the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA), including with its Science Council and Professional Development Committee. Her petition, formally approved by Elections Alberta, proposes to end the practice of allocating public funds to accredited independent (private) schools.

If successful, the initiative would force all Alberta families into the public system, eliminating the flexibility to send children to faith-based, classical, or alternative programs that reflect their family values and learning needs.

Alberta’s current education model is unique in Canada, providing partial public funding to accredited independent schools that meet provincial curriculum and accountability standards. The approach ensures educational diversity and accessibility regardless of socioeconomic status.

Union leaders argue the public system is under strain — yet their proposed reform would strip parents of any alternative. Rather, it’s a move toward a one-size-fits-all, bureaucratic model that would punish families who opt for schools that work better for their children.

Under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act, organizers must collect signatures from 10 % of the total votes cast in the previous provincial election to trigger a referendum. Based on the 2023 election results, that means Taylor’s campaign must gather about 177,700 signatures within six months — a significant challenge, but not an impossible one given union membership numbers and reach.

If successful, the campaign would mark the most significant rollback of parental choice in Alberta’s education system in decades, replacing a model built on flexibility and innovation with a rigid, government-controlled monopoly.

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