Hogg supports Catholic schools despite claim, she says

By COLLIN GALLANT on May 20, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

The recent UCP education minister claims a Medicine Hat area candidate for the NDP wants to “eradicate” Catholic education in the province, but Cathy Hogg says she has no idea what Adriana LaGrange is talking about.

“It’s just not true,” said Hogg, the New Democrat candidate in Cypress-Medicine Hat, on Friday. “I’m a baptized Catholic and my grandchildren, my daughter, all graduated from Monsignor McCoy High School. “I’m not anti-Catholic. I’m not ‘anti’ anything; I’m pro-children.”

The release, jointly signed by recent cabinet ministers Adriana LaGrange, Rebecca Schulz and incumbent Peace River candidate Dan Williams, also mentions LaGrange’s NDP challenger in the riding of Red Deer North.

It claims past statements from Hogg and two other NDP candidates show they “advocated for the elimination of the Catholic school system.”

“The simple reality is that the NDP wants to dictate where and how students are educated,” it reads before outlining a UCP statement of principle in favour of “school choice.”

Hogg, a longtime trustee with the Prairie Rose School Division (a public board), was also president of the Alberta Public School Boards Association in 2019, and felt the attributed statement this week is a misreading of an association position.

At that time, the group suggested half of a $600-million cost reduction in education – suggested by the UCP’s Blue Ribbon Panel report – could be found by combining administrative costs of operating the six existing education streams under a single school board system.

That would lead to lower spending on operational items like administrative salaries, facilities and busing, but apparently not affect instruction.

“There’s no talk in (the NDP) party about eradicating Catholic or francophone education,” said Hogg this week. “At the end of the day, we support public education.”

The UCP release states one-quarter of Alberta’s 740,000 students fall under Catholic boards, and 91 per cent attend schools in government-funded public, Catholic or francophone systems.

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