zmason@medicinehatnews.com

The petition for the “Alberta Funds Public Schools” citizen initiative was issued Tuesday. Organizers can now start collecting signatures to try to advance their policy proposal seeking to end the allocation of public funds to private schools.

However, John Jagersma, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta, isn’t mincing words in his description of it.

“It would be catastrophic,” he said in an interview with the News on Tuesday. “I don’t think I’m being dramatic when I say that.

“There’s a lot of unintended consequences to this petition and a lot of context that’s missing.”

Private schools in Alberta receive 70 per cent of the per-student funding allocated for public schools. Half of Canada’s provinces allocate at

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