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Eight Alberta public school divisions say they lost a key piece of their legal identity when sweeping new provincial legislation took effect earlier this week.

The Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta has written to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange asking her to reconsider name changes she ordered that struck the word “public” from the legal names of eight of the 41 public school boards.

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“We’re proud of being public,” association president Cathy Hogg said on Thursday. “Public is a great word. Why would you want to remove that word? It implies inclusion and everybody’s welcome.”

The tweaking of school boards’ legal names allowed separate school boards to keep “Catholic” or “Roman Catholic,” Hogg said, and that’s an inequity. With more charter and private schools expected to open up under a United Conservative (UCP) government that favours school choice, Hogg said striking out the word “public” may cause some confusion.