Alberta Funds Public Schools citizen initiative petition falls short of required signatures

A campaign pushing for a referendum on private education funding failed, but still gathered more than 120,000 signatures.

A citizen initiative petition that would ask Albertans if the province should stop allocating public funds to private schools in a referendum has fallen some 50,000 short of its required signatures.

Alberta Funds Public Schools petition proponent Alicia Taylor said she was disappointed in the outcome.

“Of course (we’re) disappointed that we didn’t get the 177,732 signatures that we needed,” said Taylor. “But ever so grateful to the volunteers and I think that our message is important. I’m really grateful that we got the signatures we did.”

Taylor mobilized 2,000 people to collect signatures across the province in 90 days. The official number of signatures has yet to be verified by Elections Alberta, but the petition’s website counts 123,006 signatures.

The Calgary teacher said she was motivated to lead the petition after hearing from the premier and ministers about the lack of funding to public schools amid a historic teachers’ strike.

“Make no mistake, our province funds public schools at the lowest rate in the country while funding private schools at one of the highest levels,” said Taylor in a speech at the Elections Alberta office in Edmonton Wednesday.

“If our province doesn’t have enough money to provide our public school students with the appropriate class sizes and learning conditions they need, there should be no money spent on private education.”

If the petition achieved its signature requirement, it would go to the Legislative Assembly as outlined in the Citizen Initiative Act.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Galen McDougall