Petition to end private school funding falls short by more than 40K signatures

By ZOE MASON on February 18, 2026.

zmason@medicinehatnews.com

A citizen initiative petition asking if the province should end its policy of allocating public funds to accredited independent schools has failed to gather the requisite number of signatures to proceed.

The petition needed to gather 177,000 signatures over a 120-day period for the question to advance to referendum.

According to the preliminary number of signatures counted, released by the province Tuesday, the petition gathered only 124,937 signatures.

The petition was launched in October during the province-wide teacher strike, which lasted three weeks.

Alberta’s $10.4-billion education budget includes $461 million in funding for independent schools. It is the highest funding for private schools in the country. Several provinces do not allocate any public money on private schools.

While the petition was not launched by the Alberta Teachers Association, it received the support of ATA president Jason Schilling when it was launched.

“$461 million would make a difference. It’s not going to fix the hole that we’re in but it would make a difference. It’s a positive step forward,” he told reporters in October.

But critics said it would be “catastrophic” for private schools in the province, including early childhood service operators that provide specialized care to children with special needs.

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