Albertans petition Premier Notley to publicly direct her cabinet to ensure that the first school built in any new community is a Public school. Requests for portables, modulars, and space expansion must prioritize public schools.
That’s because, Alberta Public schools:
- PUT STUDENTS FIRST by serving ALL members of the community — even Catholic students are eligible to attend.
- PUT TEACHERS AND STAFF FIRST as EVERYONE can compete fairly for jobs, even Catholics; while Catholic schools openly practice discriminatory employment practices which can unjustly deny or terminate employment on the basis of religion, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation.
- SUPPORT CHOICE FOR ALL FAMILIES as more public school space means more options like French immersion, second languages, IB, welding shops, and many more educational opportunities.
- ADHERE TO CANADIAN LAW: A judge in Saskatchewan recently ruled that “Provincial government funding of non-(Catholic) students attending (Catholic) schools is a violation of the state’s duty of religious neutrality under s. 2(a) of the Charter.” and further that it was a a violation of equality rights under s. 15(1) of the Charter.”
Hundreds of millions of public tax dollars that should be hiring public teachers and building public schools are currently being used for Catholic Church functions such as to evangelize the Catholic faith and pay for chaplains — outrageous expenditures of tax dollars extraneous to the Alberta curriculum and Alberta Constitution.
Remember, separate Catholic electors do not pay for the construction of separate schools, as education property taxes are pooled into general revenue and all school dollars for capital projects are allocated by the provincial government.
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