School choice is popular in Alberta.

But, school vouchers remain controversial.

They shouldn't be, and the Alberta Parents' Union is working hard to change that, but at least for now, they are.

That's not the case, across much of Europe and the United States, however, where the debate is largely settled.

In much of Europe, school choice and school vouchers have long been the norm, while in the United States, state governments increasingly recognize that giving parents more flexibility over how their children are educated is both popular and effective.

In fact, many of the places that once fiercely debated school vouchers - both Democrat and Republican - have now fully embraced them.

Interestingly, until recently, Texas was something of an outlier.

For many years, Texas legislators resisted implementing a broad school voucher system, with much of the opposition actually coming from rural Republicans.

But that changed last year when the Texas legislature finally passed a major new program known as the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program.

Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, the program will allow up to 100,000 students to receive a voucher for funding that they can use toward school tuition, tutoring, instructional materials, and other approved education services.

Students attending any of the thousands of schools that sign up to participate will receive $10,474 per year in funding.

Applications opened on February 4th, 2026, and the response from parents was immediate.

On the very first day, more than 42,000 students applied for the program.

The number of applications has now surged to more than 200,000 students - more than double the number of available spaces.

To put that in perspective, Texas has roughly 5.5 million K-12 students, so more than 3.5% of all students in the state have already applied for the program.

Clearly, parents and students want more choice in education.

And this pattern is not unique to Texas.

Across the United States, once school choice programs are introduced, they quickly grow in popularity.

As families experience the benefits firsthand, entire communities have been left wondering what the controversy was about to begin with.

It really is one of those things where seeing is believing.

And it's high time for Alberta families to get to see the benefits of a voucher program, too.

Alberta once led the way on school choice.

The province developed a uniquely flexible system that includes open enrolment policies within the public system, public, catholic, and francophone flexibility, alternative programs, charter schools, independent schools, and homeschooling.

But while voucher programs expanded across the United States and the world, previous Alberta governments stood still.

And, as a result, the choices available to Alberta parents and kids have fallen behind what's available elsewhere.

To its credit, the current Alberta government has now taken important steps to expand school choice by removing the artificial cap on the number of charter schools permitted to operate in the province.

That change has allowed new charter schools to open and expand, and since 2019, enrolment in charter schools has grown by 55%, compared to just 9% in public schools.

But demand for school choice continues to far outpace supply.

Only a tiny fraction of those who wish to attend a different school in Alberta can do so.

Estimates suggest that waitlists for charter schools in Alberta are more than four times the current total charter school enrolment, meaning the province would need to increase charter school spaces roughly fivefold just to accommodate the students on the list right now.

And, as new schools open and the word gets out, we should expect demand to grow even faster.

The experience of Europe and the United States shows that expanding school choice strengthens our education system by giving families the ability to find the learning environment that works best for their children.

That is why the Alberta Parents’ Union made school vouchers one of our core policy goals when we were founded.

We continue, of course, to also support policies that make incremental improvements to expand educational choice, such as the opening of more charter schools, more flexible funding models, and greater support for alternative education.

But it's high time for Alberta to take the next step.

Our kids' futures shouldn't depend on the length of a waitlist or the outcome of a lottery.

All parents and all kids deserve the same freedom to direct education funding toward the school or learning environment that best fits them.