An overview of provincial expenditures on public education is provided below along with enrolment information of students in the private sector. A profile of independent (private) school funding from 2005 expenses is provided in enrolment graph. More recent data is not available for calculating a parallel picture. Also, the high needs students in Designated Special Education Private Schools and high needs students in private ECS operations would need to be taken into account to provide a fair comparison. 

1.The provincially funded enrolments in Alberta’s K-12 system totaled 551,641 students in 2006/2007.

2. An equal provincial funding framework applies to all Alberta qualifying ECS students. This framework included 3,055 funded students in private ECS operations and 1,933 funded students at the ECS level in independent (private) schools.

3. 16, 370 Alberta students were partially funded for their grades 1-12 education as they attended independent (private) schools with publicly accredited programs. These programs are of equivalent benefit to the province but for political reasons they were funded at 40% less for instruction. Students received no support for capital, transportation or other operational grant areas. Special needs students may receive additional grants to address their circumstances if the needs and supports are properly identified.

4. Alberta’s independent school sector of 21, 358 funded K-12 students in 2006/2007 was 3.8% of the provincially funded student population. Public schools enrolled 530,282 funded students in the K-12 grades.

5. According to budget 2007 figures, Alberta Education spent about $5.6 billion on K-12 Education in 2006/2007 in the following categories:

• $578,461,000 - School Facilities ($1,091 per public student)
• $403,543,000 - Plant Operations & Maintenance ($761 per public student)
• $4,610,661,000 - Instructional/operational ($8,695 per public student)
• $5,592,665,000 – Total
• $10,547 was the average provincial cost per public student in 2006/2007.

*Enrolments in independent (private) schools and all funding for those students are excluded from the above calculations in order to project costs to the province per public student.

Note:
Provincial expenses per public student in 2008/2009 are projected to exceed $11,000 per public student as the total budget is approximately $6 billion. That figure excludes expenses made by the government for current public service pension contributions and the $2.3 billion slated for paying off the unfunded pension liability in the public sector.