By Geoff Smith (@GeoffSmithLNN on Twitter)

Province to private schools: comply with GSA law or lose funding

Nov 14, 2018 | 11:14 AM

EDMONTON – The province is imposing policies to support gay-straight alliances on 28 private school authorities and threatening them with the loss of their per-student funding next year if they don’t comply.

Education minister David Eggen said in order to receive their grants, these authorities must post the standard policy on their website in a prominent location. The other 66 accredited, funded private school authorities have already complied, Eggen explained in a news release.

The list includes 40-Mile Christian Education Society, Calvin Christian School Society of the Netherlands Reformed Congregations, Coaldale Canadian Reformed School Society, and Evangelical Free Church of Champion Alberta.

He also said all public, separate, francophone, and charter school authorities are already in compliance with the Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances, which was passed in December 2017, covering more than 98 per cent of k-12 students in Alberta.

“Following this law is not optional,” Eggen added. “Ensuring vulnerable children feel safe and included at school is not optional. Not in today’s Alberta. And not when you receive as much as 70 per cent of your funding from taxpayers, as private schools in our province do.”

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The law was passed to support students who want to create or join a gay-straight alliance or queer-straight alliance. It gave school authorities until June 30, 2018 to post their policy prominently on their website.

All school authorities were advised in writing, according to the news release, and given an example policy for reference. Follow-up took place over the summer and into the fall, including two written notices sent to non-compliant authorities.