Editing Alberta (section)

== Education ==
{{Main|Education in Alberta}}
As with any Canadian province, the Alberta Legislature has (almost) exclusive authority to make laws respecting education. Since 1905, the Legislature has used this capacity to continue the model of locally elected public and separate school boards which originated prior to 1905, as well as to create and regulate universities, colleges, technical institutions, and other educational forms and institutions (public charter schools, private schools, homeschooling).

=== Elementary and secondary ===
There are forty-two public school jurisdictions in Alberta, and seventeen operating separate school jurisdictions. Sixteen of the operating separate school jurisdictions have a Catholic electorate, and one ([[St. Albert, Alberta|St.&nbsp;Albert]]) has a Protestant electorate. In addition, one Protestant separate school district, Glen Avon, survives as a ward of the St. Paul Education Region. The City of Lloydminster straddles the Albertan/Saskatchewan border, and both the public and separate school systems in that city are counted in the above numbers: both of them operate according to Saskatchewan law.

For many years, the provincial government has funded the greater part of the cost of providing K–12 education. Prior to 1994, public and separate school boards in Alberta had the legislative authority to levy a local tax on property as supplementary support for local education. In 1994, the government of the province eliminated this right for public school boards, but not for separate school boards. Since 1994, there has continued to be a tax on property in support of K–12 education; the difference is that the provincial government now sets the mill rate, the money is collected by the local municipal authority and remitted to the provincial government. The relevant legislation requires that all the money raised by this property tax must go to support K–12 education provided by school boards. The provincial government pools the property tax funds from across the province and distributes them, according to a formula, to public and separate school jurisdictions and Francophone authorities.

[[State school|Public]] and separate school boards, charter schools, and private schools all follow the Program of Studies and the curriculum approved by the provincial department of education (Alberta Education). [[Homeschooling|Homeschool]] tutors may choose to follow the Program of Studies or develop their own Program of Studies. Public and separate schools, charter schools, and approved private schools all employ teachers who are certificated by Alberta Education, they administer Provincial Achievement Tests and Diploma Examinations set by Alberta Education, and they may grant high school graduation certificates endorsed by Alberta Education.

=== Post-secondary ===
{{Main|Higher education in Alberta}}
[[File:U of A.jpg|thumb|The [[University of Alberta]] in 2005. The institution is the oldest, and largest university in Alberta.]]
Several publicly funded post-secondary institutions are governed under the province's ''Post-secondary Learning Act''. This includes four comprehensive [[research universities]] that provides undergraduate and graduate degrees, [[Athabasca University]], the [[University of Alberta]], the [[University of Calgary]], and the [[University of Lethbridge]]; and three undergraduate universities that primarily provide [[bachelor's degree]]s, the [[Alberta University of the Arts]], [[Grant MacEwan University]], and [[Mount Royal University]].<ref name=postsec>{{cite web |url=https://www.alberta.ca/types-publicly-funded-post-secondary-institutions.aspx |title=Types of publicly funded institutions |access-date=March 12, 2023 |year=2023 |publisher=Government of Alberta |website=www.alberta.ca |archive-date=March 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312060212/https://www.alberta.ca/types-publicly-funded-post-secondary-institutions.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

Nine comprehensive community colleges offer primarily offer diploma and certificate programs, [[Bow Valley College]], [[Keyano College]], [[Lakeland College (Alberta)|Lakeland College]], [[Lethbridge College]], [[Medicine Hat College]], [[NorQuest College]], [[Northern Lakes College]], [[Olds College]], and [[Portage College]]. In addition, there are also four [[polytechnic institute]]s that provide specific career training and provides apprenticeships and diplomas, the [[Northern Alberta Institute of Technology]], the [[Southern Alberta Institute of Technology]], [[Northwestern Polytechnic]], and [[Red Deer Polytechnic]]. The [[Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity]] is a specialized arts and cultural institution that is also empowered to provide diploma programs under the ''Post-secondary Learning Act''.<ref name=postsec/>

Alberta is also home to five [[independent school|independent]] postsecondary institutions that provide diplomas/degrees for approved programming, [[Ambrose University]], [[Burman University]], [[Concordia University of Edmonton]], [[The King's University (Edmonton)|The King's University]], and [[St. Mary's University (Calgary)|St. Mary's University]]. Although the five institutions operate under their own legislation, they remain partly governed by the province's ''Post-secondary Learning Act''.<ref name=postsec/> In addition to these institutions, there are also 190 private [[vocational school|career colleges]] in Alberta.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.alberta.ca/private-career-colleges.aspx |title=Private career colleges |access-date=March 12, 2023 |year=2023 |publisher=Government of Alberta |website=www.alberta.ca |archive-date=March 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312060211/https://www.alberta.ca/private-career-colleges.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

There was some controversy in 2005 over the rising cost of post-secondary education for students (as opposed to taxpayers). In 2005, Premier [[Ralph Klein]] made a promise that he would freeze tuition and look into ways of reducing schooling costs.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.su.ualberta.ca/governance/advocacy/ |title=Advocacy |publisher=University of Alberta |access-date=May 19, 2016 |archive-date=June 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603114619/https://www.su.ualberta.ca/governance/advocacy/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/article.cfm?section=FrontPage&articleID=276&month=2&day=16&year=2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810035239/http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/article.cfm?section=FrontPage&articleID=276&month=2&day=16&year=2005 |archive-date=August 10, 2013 |title=Klein promises tuition freeze |last=Bellamy |first=Marshall |work=The Gazette |date=February 16, 2005 |access-date=December 13, 2011 }}</ref>{{Update inline|date=March 2023}}