CALGARY — It's the final countdown for the citizen initiative petition that, if successful, proposes ending public funding to Alberta's private schools.Wednesday is the due date for the petition, making Tuesday the last day to collect signatures.Unfortunately or fortunately (whatever side you fall on), the likelihood they will meet the required signatures is not high.They need 177,732 signatures; as of the last day, they are currently 56,160 signatures short.In total, 121,572 signatures were collected — not enough to invoke any sort of policy proposal to be considered by the Legislative Assembly..If the petition does get enough signatures, its proposal would be given to Alberta's Legislative Assembly.With 10 sitting days, the proposal would then be tabled, and a motion on the proposal would be introduced to a committee of MLAs. Alicia Taylor submitted the proposal under Section 2(3) of the Citizen Initiative Act, which allows Canadian citizens to submit proposals in the form of questions to change either legislation or the Constitution.Taylor's proposed question was: "Should the Government of Alberta end its current practice of allocating public funds to accredited independent (private) schools?"Taylor is a district representative for Alberta's public teacher union, the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA), and according to her LinkedIn, she works as a teacher for the Calgary Board of Education. how to .In January, the Alberta Funds Public Schools (AFPS), what the petition organizers call themselves, even advertised on Facebook with one petition signing location being the ATA offices in Calgary.In another Facebook post, dated January 20, the ATA reposts the signature locations, adding, "Please support!! Signatures are still needed!"According to Jeff Park, Executive Director of Alberta's Parent Union (APU), the majority of parents, "who are not also members of the ATA are absolutely against this petition.""I talked to a lot of people who hadn't really been paying much attention to education policy or to the ATA who very much were drawn into an adversary relationship with the ATA because of this petition.".AFPS also announced on their Facebook, last Sunday was the last day to sign their petition. The results that were still coming in Tuesday are AFPS self-reporting signatures.
