Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

SACPA and the Lethbridge Public Library present a special evening session of the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs on Tuesday Feb 5, 2013 from 7-9pm MLA for Calgary-Buffalo Kent Hehr presented a Private Member’s Bill in November 2012 that called on the Alberta government to eliminate public funding for private schools. Alberta is one of only five provinces that subsidizes private students. Furthermore, Alberta provides 70% funding to private schools, the richest subsidy to private schools in the country. Hehr has said that the $130 million set aside to support private schools in the 2012-13 budget is desperately needed in the public school system to implement programs like full day kindergarten and a school lunch initiative. Defendants of private schools have argued that private schools offer educational choices not available in the public system but Hehr counters that he is not calling for an abolition of private schools but the public funding for them: "I believe our public school system is a