00:12:58.200The provincial government will want to think about how it can help more kids access these high-performing schools.
00:13:04.400This study found the largest gap in grade 9 mathematics, where charter students scored 14.1 percentage points higher than public school students in 2024.
00:13:17.320The smallest gap was in grade 6 science, where results were 6.2 points higher than Catholic schools.
00:13:24.480So, Waleed, people in Alberta might not actually know what charter schools are.
00:13:29.340So, can you explain, you know, what are charter schools, and what could explain why they are performing better than these government-run institutions in the province?
00:13:39.760Well, Clayton, a charter school, by definition, is a school that is independent but receives public funding.
00:13:45.800I think charter schools are essentially a product of the broader school choice movement,
00:13:50.220which was heavily influenced by my favorite economist, Milton Friedman, and his work.
00:13:54.840They're tuition-free public schools that operate independently from that of traditional public schools that are regulated by,
00:14:03.140for example, the Catholic School Board, the Public School Board, the French School Board,
00:14:07.240and the other school boards we have across provinces in Canada.
00:14:10.920Now, what makes them very successful for students' performance is that students are able to get more curated,
00:14:18.080individualized, and specialized education packages and opportunities,
00:14:22.040because, again, the school itself is independent.
00:14:24.940So, it's Board of Accountability, not a school board governing a region of thousands, if not millions of students,
00:14:32.140but rather dealing with the parents and the kids and the community itself.
00:14:37.260Of course, in different communities, different skills, different social education will be much more beneficial than in others,
00:14:44.660and that's where things become more helpful.
00:14:46.680You have, for example, programs like the IB, programs like exchange student programs, or travel abroad,
00:14:54.500all kinds of new innovative methods of getting students the best opportunity in their youth to learn and grow.
00:15:00.660These schools typically bring in a higher proportion, because, again, they're able to wage programs
00:15:06.460according to the needs of their own student population, rather than sharing a kind of a maximized, centrally governed model.
00:15:15.520Now, one of the criticisms that normally level against those that are not very much in favor of school choice,
00:15:21.480or, frankly, charter schools for that matter, are people that believe that charter schools essentially favor those
00:15:27.520that are already in privileged situations, maybe those that come from a high-income family or an upper-middle-class background.
00:15:34.300And the fact of the matter is, regardless of income, or in the case that we know we're living in the DEI era,
00:15:42.360where race will always be a part of conversations, even if they don't need be,
00:15:47.640the Sanford University's Hoover Institute actually published a major national study back in 2023,
00:15:54.060when they showed that the, and they used data based from 29 different states,
00:16:00.560including the District of Columbia and New York City specifically as well,
00:16:05.120the typical charter school student had been found to have greater math and reading gains
00:16:11.860that outpaced those peers in traditional public schools,
00:16:16.280but also those learning gains were significantly higher among blacks and Hispanics and those living in poverty.
00:16:24.240So the gain between public and private across the board is significant,
00:16:28.180but it's even more significant in terms of how we can bridge the gap and take people's potential higher
00:16:33.320when you're looking at people from low-income backgrounds or from, as we would say in the woke sense,