New NDP Government

The Alberta Home Education Association wishes to congratulate Alberta's premier elect, Rachel Notley, and her New Democratic Party.

During the election campaign, many NDP candidates spoke of "standing up for the little guy" and we sincerely hope that that stance will continue and that the NDP will stand up and support home education.

Home education is indeed "the little guy" in Alberta, although our numbers are steadily growing.

Here are some numbers to keep in mind:

- There are almost 10,000 home educated students in Alberta for the 2014/15 school year (that number does not include "blended", "fully aligned", or "Alberta Education online" students)

- The number of home educated students in 2014/15 is up over 8% from 2013/14

- Those 10,000 students still represent less than 1.5% of the total Alberta student population (and less then 2/100ths of a percent of the Alberta Education budget)

- That makes home education "the little guy" and yet we saved Alberta taxpayers over $80 million in 2014/15!

The election of the new government under the NDP party, means that they will develop their own budget. As we await their new budget, we really have no firm direction on what is going to happen financially with home education.

Again, AHEA congratulates the new NDP government and Wildrose opposition, and we also offer sincere thanks to all those MLAs from all political parties who have supported home education in the past.

We hope that support for home education and for parental rights and freedoms will continue to be strong among all parties for years to come.

Paul van den Bosch

President

Alberta Home Education Association