Even though Edmonton Public Schools remains tight on space, it’s not stopping school board trustees from making sure every child in the city can have a seat.
The school board voting 5-2 on Tuesday to review enrollment requirements to see if they fit with the United Nations convention on the rights of the child, which makes education free to all.
Advocates and teacher representatives in support of this told the board it’s now school administrators who are checking immigration status, telling students who have been denied, and parents choosing to remove their child due to their status.
“I run the range of sadness on this one all the way to anger. I think our members are the same way. Not having those kids in our class, it’s a bigger societal issue and I think if we don’t acknowledge that, not having those kids in class. Not only is that a learning gap that they quite possibly will never make up,” said Heather Quinn, Edmonton Public Teachers Local 37 President.
Heather Quinn, Edmonton Public Teachers Local 37 President. (James Dunn, CityNews)
We don’t know how many children were turned away at Edmonton Public Schools because of their immigration status as those numbers are not tracked.
The expected review comes as Alberta is two weeks away from referendum day with several questions around immigration and government funding a child’s access to school who doesn’t have approved immigration status. Edmonton’s public board not speculating on what a yes vote means for this review.
“If the referendum questions do pass, we’ll work with government to figure out how that will impact our school division as some questions are non-binding referendum questions,” said Saadiq Sumar.
Saadiq Sumar. (James Dunn, CityNews)
Sumar says he doesn’t know how long the review will take.
Keep it Factual
Add CityNews Edmonton as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.
