Where do the seven UCP leadership candidates stand on education issues?

With fewer than 10 days to go until United Conservative Party members choose a new leader — and Alberta's next premier — CBC News delved into the seven candidates' platforms and public comments to see where they stand on the province's education system.

Although pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 education will consume 14 per cent of the province's expenses this year, education is more than just a budget line — it's a cultural battleground of competing philosophies about what and how students learn.

CBC News showed a compilation of candidates' positions to University of Alberta education policy studies associate professor Darryl Hunter.

He noticed some themes, including all candidates pledging to improve the provincial government's strained relationship with the Alberta Teachers' Association.

Hunter also sees candidates launching trial balloons he says have been floated by "small-c conservatives" for years, including the expansion of the charter school system, an affinity for standardized testing as a measure of accountability, and admiration for the United States' voucher system, in which public funding follows the student to the school of their choice.

But for the most part, Hunter says candidates are playing it safe.

"I don't see anything new and earth-shaking," he said.

The curriculum: a common punching bag

Crafting a new school curriculum in all grades and subjects began more than a decade ago under the Progressive Conservative government, and continued under the NDP government that won power in 2015.

But the UCP's revamped drafts attracted a litany of protest from academics, teachers and parents and some of the leadership candidates are channelling the public fury into pledges for change.

Former cabinet minister Rajan Sawhney says she would "halt the further development and implementation of the current curriculum. That is my promise." She said more experts should be involved in its development.

Leela Aheer, another former cabinet minister, says she would also pause the curriculum rollout and scrap the controversial proposed social studies drafts entirely.

Brian Jean told the ATA leadership forum in August he would introduce one subject per year in the future.

"If elected the leader, I would direct that the elements of the K-6 curriculum, specifically language arts, math, phys ed, wellness will become an optional pilot for [this] year," Jean said. He would update the drafts based on teacher feedback.

Former cabinet minister Rebecca Schulz said there have been positive reviews of the K-3 math and English Language Arts (ELA). She thinks it would be too disruptive to change curriculum mid-year.

Support for the new math and ELA curriculum is not universal.

Schulz, Jean and former cabinet minister Travis Toews have repeated the Kenney government's message that voters wanted the NDP's alleged bias out of curriculum. 

In an email, Toews said he supports keeping the curriculum timeline unchanged, but welcomes more input from educators on the content.

"What we cannot do is give our education system back to the NDP in 2023," Toews said at an August virtual forum hosted by the group Parents for Choice in Education.

MLA Todd Loewen supports the government's direction on curriculum reform. Schools should focus on teaching facts, and not imparting social or political values, he said.

"We can't throw this out, and have this being this political football going back and forth between the parties," Loewen said at the Parents for Choice forum.

Other than saying she's heard a positive review of the math and ELA curriculum, former Opposition leader Danielle Smith has been unclear on whether she would proceed with the proposed curriculum content and material as is.

Emails to Smith's campaign seeking clarity went unanswered. She has previously said funding additional testing and school staff to help identify and combat learning disabilities and help students who fell behind during the pandemic is a higher priority than adopting new curriculum.

She also flagged comments from parents who claim teachers are besmirching the reputation of the oil industry.

"If you're wondering why there's a pressure for people to have other [school] choices, it's because the parents are feeling like they're not having their views and their values not reflected in the classroom," Smith told the ATA forum.

Enthusiasm for 'parent choice' across the field

Candidates all support the principle of allowing parents to choose a school system and program for their children.

Among the approaches candidates have proposed to foster school choice is the adoption of an American-style school voucher system. Smith pointed to a program in Arizona that allows families to take $7,000 of public funding each year to whichever school program they prefer.

Since 2019, the UCP has had a policy on calling for a voucher system that would allow independent schools to receive an equal amount of per-student funding as public schools. Currently, Alberta's private school system receives the highest public subsidies in the country, with schools getting 70 per cent of the funding per student as a public school.

Smith would like to double the $850 that home-schooling parents receive annually for curriculum and supplies.

Schulz isn't as enamoured with a possible voucher system, saying it doesn't recognize some students' unique needs.

Toews has promised to fund transportation costs for private school students at 70 cents on the dollar compared to public schools. Right now they receive no public funds for busing. He also said private schools should have more "flexibility" with curriculum, but did not elaborate.

Sawhney said families should have school choice but that the public system should be the priority as it serves almost 91 per cent of Alberta students.

Charter schools shouldn't be able to pick and choose students, Aheer said. She said all private school teachers should be certified, so they have the option to join the ATA.

Hunter says the affection for "choice" could be a nod to the conservative philosophy that greater competition leads to cheaper services. A more privatized system could lead to lower salaries and less public expense, he said.

Hunter says if students, and subsequently, school funding, becomes increasingly fragmented among systems — especially in small communities — schools could eliminate programs to cut costs, leading to fewer choices for students.

Jean and Loewen haven't made tangible commitments to enhance school choice.

School funding – follow the money

Hunter says K-12 funding is the most critical education issue in the province, and thinks leadership candidates should spend more time addressing it.

From when the UCP took power in 2019, Toews, as finance minister, was fixated on controlling the costs of public services. The budget to run Alberta schools stayed almost flat while enrolments grew in many urban areas, and inflation drove up costs. It has left some school divisions taking money out of their savings accounts to cover operating expenses.

It has led to larger class sizes, with more students with complex needs, and in some cases, fewer educational assistants and health professionals to help them keep up.

Schulz now acknowledges the UCP's new education funding formula has blind spots, including a calculation called the "weighted moving average." It leaves growing divisions constantly playing catch-up by funding newly enrolled students at a lower rate. The funding needs to be more predictable, she said.

"I think what we've seen is still some issues with class size complexity and dollars following students," Schulz said.

In her platform, Schulz pledges to add 3,500 more educational assistants by 2023-24, at an annual cost of $120 million. (It's unclear how many educational assistants work in Alberta now. The education ministry says it doesn't track that.)

Schulz pledges to hire new teachers to improve class sizes and composition, at an annual cost of $153 million by 2024-25, within 30 days of forming government. She also wants to expand programs that place mental health professionals, social workers, and other employees in schools.

Aheer said students cannot be subjected to austerity, and that education funding must be indexed to rise with inflation and growing enrolment.

Class sizes need to be manageable for teachers, she said. And the province should consider preparing five- or 10-year capital plans so school divisions know when new schools will be built and modernizations complete.

Sawhney has also said children with disabilities need more support in school, but hasn't provided funding goals.

Smith wants to see funding distributed more evenly between types of schools, pointing to the challenges charter schools have had getting start-up and construction funding. She says schools need more educational assistants and increased student screening, but hasn't set targets.

Both Loewen and Jean favour the UCP's education funding formula. Loewen says it would be disruptive to keep changing it, and Albertans should give it a chance to work. Jean said growing schools struggling under the model should get additional funds. But he also said, "I'm not going to commit to any big funding increases."

Toews defends his record of holding education funding essentially flat. He acknowledges it doesn't work for growing schools, and, like Jean, suggests an additional grant to help offset their cost pressures.

But with such a large proportion of the provincial budget destined for schools, a growing demographic of school-age children in the province, and challenging inflation numbers, Hunter wants to hear a more specific long-term vision from the new leader on how money is both raised, and distributed to pay for education.

"Does a flat line mean fixed?" he said. "And, you're going to let inflation erode the money that's going to education? That's a fairly big issue."

The UCP will announce its new leader in Calgary on Oct. 6.