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The Alberta government should phase out public funding for private schools, Edmonton public school trustees voted to advocate on Tuesday.

“Our role, in my mind, is to be a leader and defend public education,” trustee Trisha Estabrooks said at a Tuesday school board meeting, where she introduced the motion.

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Citing the $162-million annual cost of private schools that could be diverted into public schools, the trustees voted 8-1 to lobby Education Minister David Eggen to wean independent schools off public coffers.

Opposed was trustee Sherry Adams, who said she campaigned on school choice in last fall’s civic election. The five per cent of Alberta students who attend independent schools use two per cent of provincial education funding, she said. If public funding evaporated, private schools would close, and public education expenses would jump as students went into the public system, Adams said.