A type of ideological arrogance persists in the education sector that tends to make the claim that providing education ought to be the exclusive domain of only Alberta’s public school systems. Such a narrow view, however, marginalizes the public good provided by publicly accredited independent schools; it is disrespectful of parents who make responsible decisions to educate their children in publicly accredited independent schools and it denigrates and marginalizes the immense contributions that independent schools have made for years to the province socially, educationally and economically. One writer reminds us

“… whenever the words “public” and “education” are used in the same sentence, almost everyone thinks of a state system of education. The educational establishment has succeeded in making people think that public education and public schooling are the same thing-but they are not. Throughout the western world, governments support not only public schools, but a wide variety of school choices as legitimate ways to do public education. In those jurisdictions, governments have understood that the state’s obligation to provide for good education is significantly different from actually providing and controlling that education (Communicator, Spring 2007, p. 1; emphasis as in original).

Ongoing political pressure from the educational establishment therefore continually marginalizes the value and important contributions of Alberta’s independent schools and influences public policy makers to treat their operators and students as “outsiders” undeserving of fair funding. Voices from the educational establishment repeatedly reflect little knowledge of the equivalent standards for programs and for teacher qualifications. A general ignorance of the actual level of government support prevails. Knowledge of the extensive public accountability framework that applies to publicly accredited independent schools is very limited and many misconceptions continue to pass as truth.

Alberta’s provincial education system, however, is not synonymous with the public education system, diverse as it is in its variety. Providing schooling is not the exclusive domain of only the spectrum of school systems characterized as the public system: public, separate, charter, Francophone, public school-based supervised home education and distributed learning venues.

Not-for-profit publicly accredited independent schools (categorized as accredited-funded private schools in regulation) have always played a foundational role in the Alberta’s education system. They are an important and unique part of the province’s foundation for schooling children. They meet a public good and are instrumental in providing quality educational services that fulfill the provincial mandate for education while enabling parental choice to be partially recognized as an important legitimate right.