Expanding choice through charter schools could yield better academic results, finds the MEI

Montreal, September 4, 2025 – Alberta could see better student outcomes and higher parental satisfaction by making the charter school option more accessible, finds a new MEI report published this morning.

“Alberta is the only Canadian province to allow charter schools, which form an integral part of its pluralistic, market-driven education system,” says Emmanuelle B. Faubert, economist at the MEI and co-author of the report. “Charter schools consistently deliver strong academic results and high levels of community satisfaction.”

Charter schools are publicly funded, but operate independently of school boards, tailoring their teaching to meet specific needs not being met in traditional public schools, whether for at-risk youth, children with special needs, or specializations such as STEM or sports. They have a clear mandate to provide innovative, high-quality education where the traditional system falls short.

Provincial Achievement Test results in grades six and nine show that, on average, charter schools outperform all other school types in Alberta.

Charter schools drive innovation in Alberta’s school networks. For example, the integration of iPads and the adoption of mastery-based learning were both pioneered in charter schools before being emulated elsewhere in the system.

Over the past few years, demand for spots in charter schools has risen; however, supply has struggled to keep pace.

Between the 2019-2020 and 2024-2025 school years, enrollment in charter schools grew by 55.3 per cent, compared to just 8.8 per cent in public schools. The share of Alberta students attending charter schools rose by 42.9 per cent over this period.

This is admittedly in part an artifact of the small starting point, as the share of students who attended charter schools increased from 1.4 per cent to 2.0 per cent overall.

Nonetheless, this modest but real growth in market share does not fully reflect the increased demand for charter school education. As demand exceeds available spaces, waitlists have grown in most charter schools.

“The principle of choice requires real access, not just a spot on a waitlist,” notes Ms. Faubert.

For the 2023-2024 school year, a total of 20,585 students were on waitlists for just three of the 19 charter authorities then operating (Foundations for the Future Charter Academy, Alberta Classical Academy, and Aurora Academic Charter School), compared to total enrolment of 5,717.

Data for the province’s other 16 charter school operators was unavailable, as Alberta lacks a standardized, province-wide tracking system.

Many oversubscribed schools must rely on lottery-based admissions, undermining the notion of educational choice, and leaving parents reliant on luck.

To meet demand and improve access, the MEI recommends that charter schools:

• embrace transparent waitlist reporting to measure and respond to true demand.
• be allowed to own and operate their own facilities.
• be allowed to finance facility purchases through debt.

“The more responsive that educational institutions are to the needs of their communities, the better served Alberta families will be,” says Ms. Faubert. “By measuring those needs accurately and liberalizing how charter schools can operate, we will be doing our very best to ensure the success and flourishing of future generations.”

The MEI Economic Note is available here.

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The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.

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