Alberta is showing what real educational choice looks like

Alberta charter schools have delivered better results and more parental choice for over 30 years. So why do opponents still spread myths?

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During Alberta’s recent teachers’ strike, the NDP and Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) didn’t target underperformance. Instead, they went after charter schools, not for failing students, but for giving parents too much choice.

NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi and the ATA, the province’s main teachers’ union, painted charter schools as elite, private institutions for the wealthy. Their story: the government was favouring “private schools” while underfunding unionized classrooms.

That story doesn’t hold up. Charter schools in Alberta are public, tuition-free, and follow the provincial curriculum. They just operate outside local school boards.

The ATA and its political allies have opposed charter schools for decades, likely because these schools challenge the system’s control. And in many cases, outperform it.

Now entering their fourth decade, Alberta’s charter schools remain Canada’s strongest model for education reform. While other provinces remain stuck in bureaucratic ruts, Alberta showed what happens when innovation meets real parental demand. The result? Stronger academics, lower costs and more choice for families. Yet most provinces still ignore the model entirely.

Researcher Paige MacPherson, now with the Fraser Institute, was one of the first to study Alberta charter schools seriously. Her 2018 report, An Untapped Potential for Educational Diversity, remains the best single analysis of how and why they work. Her findings still apply today.

Charter schools were introduced in 1994 by Premier Ralph Klein and education minister Halvar Jonson. They were designed as tuition-free, non-profit public schools, governed by independent boards and run directly under the minister’s authority—not by local school boards. Each charter school focuses on a specific mission: some emphasize STEM, others classical education, trauma-informed support or fine arts.

They must follow the Alberta curriculum and hire certified teachers, though exceptions can be made for specific expertise. Like all public schools, they must admit any student if space allows.

The model works. A 2013 C.D. Howe Institute study found charter students were 14 to 18 per cent more likely to meet Alberta’s “standard of excellence,” even after controlling for income and background. Most charter schools meet that bar year after year. Those that don’t tend to show steady gains.

Critics often claim this is because charter schools cherry-pick the best students. That’s false. These schools serve a wide mix: some focus on First Nations youth, immigrant families or kids recovering from trauma; others on high-performing students. The one constant is parent involvement. Families actively choose these schools — and that matters.

Choice doesn’t weaken public education. It strengthens it. Families are not all the same, and students aren’t interchangeable. Systems built on rigid uniformity deliver mediocrity to everyone. Alberta’s charter schools prove that flexibility inside the public system leads to better outcomes.

They also offer something else: a way for parents to reject politicized classroom agendas and get back to academic basics. While others talk equity, charter schools deliver it by giving working- and middle-class families access to meaningful options without paying tuition.

The success of charter schools isn’t about money. It’s about freedom. These schools operate without union contracts and without the defined-benefit pension burdens that strain public education budgets. That gives them room to prioritize performance over paperwork.

Their teachers are certified, but not full ATA members. That gives school leaders more say in who they hire, how they evaluate staff, and how they run the classroom. They can put excellence ahead of seniority and hire for fit, not just tenure.

This flexibility builds a culture of accountability and mission focus. School boards don’t set the pace: communities do. Schools can adjust quickly, extend class time, emphasize core skills, and drop what’s not working. Local leadership, not distant bureaucracy, drives results.

Still, for years, Alberta limited the number of charter school authorities to 15, and local school boards had the power to block new ones. The goal was to keep the idea small. The effect was to stifle growth even when demand surged.

That changed under former Premier Jason Kenney. His government lifted the cap and cut red tape. Dozens of new charter applications followed, including from rural communities. Even now, though, demand still outpaces supply. Waitlists are long.

That challenge—how to meet demand—should matter outside Alberta too. Charter schools remain taboo in other provinces, but for no good reason. MacPherson noted that Ontario and Atlantic Canada would benefit most from the model. And she’s right. Geographic boundaries that determine which public school a student can attend based on where they live, crumbling infrastructure and limited options are dragging those systems down.

Importing Alberta’s model could give those provinces a much-needed boost. But first, political leaders must stop treating centralization of the education system as fairness. Real fairness is letting every child, no matter their background or postal code, reach their full potential.

Alberta has shown how that’s done. Despite union spin and political noise, charter schools remain a public education success story. Their results are strong. Their costs are low. And the appetite for them is real.

They’ve endured for 30 years not by luck, but because parents and educators demanded better. And built it themselves.

Marco Navarro-Genie is vice-president of research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and co-author, with Barry Cooper, of Canada’s COVID: The Story of a Pandemic Moral Panic (2023).