One of the great strengths of the Albertan education system is its allowance for educational pluralism, which is greater than in any other province in Canada, writes Brett Fawcett for Convivium in his article Charting Educational Justice.
Core to this is the Alberta Act 1905 which states that Catholics have the right to their own fully taxpayer-funded separate schools — an extension of s. 93 of the Constitution Act 1867 which protects separate school rights in provinces that enshrined these rights in law at the time they joined confederation.
The inequity, though, is that only Catholics currently have this right enshrined in law. Allowing other religious communities to similarly have their own charter schools the same as Catholics do would be an important step in achieving accessibility, autonomy, and, ultimately, educational justice, Fawcett argues.
“Although Alberta provides many options for religious parents, none achieve autonomy and accessibility to the same degree that separate schools do. Independent religious schools have autonomy, but not full accessibility (since they still charge tuition), while alternative religious schools have accessibility, but not autonomy (since they are under the control of a secular board).”
The problem, though, is that the Education Act explicitly prohibits this in S. 26(6), which declares, “A charter school shall not be affiliated with a religious faith or denomination.”
There is no good reason for this prohibition, Fawcett writes:
“S. 93 is part of the constitutional genius of Canada, institutionalizing a genuine multiculturalism that has helped our nation become such a success story of cooperation and co-existence. Extending its provisions to Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and other minority religious communities by dropping S. 26(6) would strengthen Alberta’s educational and civil pluralism, allow more avenues for schools that train students in the pursuit of God, and be a good example for other provinces to imitate.”
