CALGARY — The Wildrose Alliance thinks Alberta parents should be allowed to choose which school their children attend, whether it’s down the block or dozens of kilometres away.
With an Airdrie school serving as a backdrop, Wildrose Alliance Leader Danielle Smith released today her caucus’s education policy, which calls for funding changes and for a greater role for school boards.
The opposition party is proposing that taxpayer dollars follow students, regardless of which school they attend. Smith believes this shift would encourage choice and competition and allow for increased local decision making.
The party is also advocating granting school boards the authority to make decisions on building new schools, but the Wildrose is not in favour of returning taxation powers to the boards — something the province took away in the 1990s.
It also is not lobbying for a boost in funding for private schools, Smith said.
"Our problem is not a lack of money," Smith told reporters.
"We spend more per capita than any other province on education. The problem is getting value for money."
Smith added parents’ school choices should not be limited by geography, pointing to Edmonton’s open boundary policy. She also suggested better programs are needed to allow students who are struggling to learn at their own pace.
Smith and Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson, who represents Airdrie-Chestermere, accused the Conservatives of playing polictics with school infrastructure.
They said high-growth communities, such as Airdrie, Chestermere and Beaumont, are in desperate need of additional schools, but were shut out in the latest building spree.
All of the new school construction went to Calgary and Edmonton.
“Now, kids in these communities are paying the price," Anderson said, noting many students are now packed in portables.
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