Alberta government promises to build 90 new schools by 2031

Alberta's government will build up to 30 new public schools, modernize five older schools and fund five charter school construction projects annually for three years, starting next year, cabinet ministers say.

Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides was among the ministers who announced more details Wednesday of an $8.6-billion initiative to try to relieve pressure on the province's jammed school buildings.

"I am confident this will keep up with the province's historic student enrolment growth by building and modernizing schools where they are needed most," Nicolaides said at the Calgary event.

The government promised three years of funding, beginning in the 2025-26 budget year, to increase student spaces in public, Catholic, francophone, charter and private schools. 

Also, after years of defending a school operational funding formula the United Conservative Party government created in 2020, Premier Danielle Smith said her government is reviewing whether it works in an era of dramatic enrolment growth.

"The funding model was working for us when we had declining enrolment," Smith said Wednesday. "It's to protect school boards [so] that they don't end up with a dramatic reduction. With this huge surge, it's not as responsive as we need it to be for enrolment growth."

Smith said the province's treasury board is "working on an alternative model" and will have more information about school funding in the February 2025 budget.

Rapidly growing school boards have called the model "broken," and say it leaves them educating thousands of unfunded new students every year. The average amount of public funding available per Alberta student has declined during the last decade.

Urban and suburban school boards have warned for years that the pace of new school construction in the province is not keeping up with the speed of enrolment growth.

Provincial data shows that the number of pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 students increased by nearly nine per cent between September 2019 and September 2023. The growth includes more than 57,000 more students registered with school authorities, and about 9,000 more unsupervised home-school students.

Alberta's population has been growing, partly in response to a government-funded advertising campaign to draw newcomers to the province. Now, the provincial government says adding more than 200,000 new residents in 2023 is causing strain on public services and buildings, like schools.

Alberta also has a younger population than some other provinces. As of last school year, 17 per cent of Albertans were enrolled in pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 programs, compared to about 12 per cent in B.C., according to education data from both provinces.

Enrolment growth disproportionately affects schools in Alberta's urban centres and their bedroom communities. While adding thousands of students each year, some suburban schools are so full, they are turning neighbourhood students away or moving grades to other buildings.

Principals have shoehorned core academic classes into food labs, art rooms and teachers' lounges.