Cardus Western Stakeholder Director Catharine Kavanagh said she is thrilled about the Alberta government unveiling the School Construction Accelerator Program (SCAP). Since Alberta’s student population is growing at an exponential rate, Kavanagh said SCAP is needed. “And we’re really excited that it recognizes all of the learning options that are out there and is investing in all the types of schooling out there, including independent schools,” said Kavanagh in a Wednesday interview. She said SCAP has an ambitious goal to create 200,000 student spaces in the next seven years. However, she acknowledged it is a win for families today and in the future with all of the spending on different types of schools. While it will focus on different types of schools, she said it is great the Alberta government will be creating a pilot program for capital projects for non-profit independent schools. She added enabling independent schools to be part of the solution is the fastest, most economical way to ease pressures in public, Catholic, and charter schools. She pointed out these schools are connected to their communities and nimble, so they can get shovels into the ground faster and at a lower cost than large school boards. Although the announcement was light on details about this pilot program, she said she looks forward to seeing more soon. Cardus put out a policy brief a few weeks ago about one option to build more independent schools being a forgivable loan matching program. Independent schools looking to move or expand or startups could apply for certain amounts of funding that they would have to match through community fundraising or borrowing. If they met various conditions, the loans would be forgiven. She said this would be a great idea, but there are others worth exploring. Cardus said Alberta’s independent school population grew by 10.5% in 2022/2023 to 2023/2024 — three times the rate of public schools (3.2%) and more than double that of Catholic schools (4.3%). She acknowledged parents are looking for the best type of education for their children and want different options to meet their learning needs, with independent schools presenting one. While there is a delay with the pilot program, she said the Alberta government is used to funding public, Catholic, and charter capital projects. It has not funded independent schools to such an extent. She said it “is natural that there would be some time taken to explore different approaches on how they can best do that.” One consideration she said it would have to deal with is independent schools owning their own buildings, which would entail examining legal and regulatory requirements to see how it can do it right. Right now, she said she feels positive about the future of independent schools in Alberta. This is because the Alberta government has reiterated its commitment to school choice. Kavanagh concluded by saying education should not have a one-size-fits-all approach. In order to accommodate different learning needs, she said there should be a varied array of schools. “Investing in the capital side of this is just as important, because if you don’t have a school building, it’s quite hard to have a school,” she said. “Part of supporting that educational choice and those options those families have includes investing in all types of learning options that we have in this province.” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Tuesday the Alberta government has approved the SCAP to respond to the province’s exploding student enrolment growth. .Smith says Alberta government to bring in School Construction Accelerator Program .Under the SCAP, Smith said the Alberta government will be increasing its kindergarten to Grade 12 capital budget for new school spaces and modernizations to about $8.6 billion over the next three years. “This will allow us to complete actual construction on approximately 50,000 new student spaces over the next three years — and to complete and open over 150,000 new spaces over the four years after that,” said Smith.
