A new report from SecondStreet.org shows that charter school students continue to outperform their peers in government-run schools.
September 22, 2026
Alberta funds non-profit charter schools where students tend to earn a full grade higher than students in traditional government-run schools
CALGARY, AB: A new report from SecondStreet.org shows that Alberta’s non-profit charter schools outperformed their public-sector counterparts by a full grade in provincial tests during the 2025-26 school year. Despite achievement being down across all types of government-funded schools in the province (primarily driven by math scores), charter school performance remains on top.
“The results are similar to what we saw last year and remain a testament to the strength of the alternative education ecosystem Alberta has cultivated over three decades,” said SecondStreet.org’s Research Director Bacchus Barua. ”Other provinces would be wise to learn from Alberta’s successful charter school model. 20,000 students are routinely on a waiting list to get into these schools for a reason.”
Key findings from the report, which examined 29 Provincial Achievement Test (PAT) score averages from 2022-2025 include:
In the school year 2024-2025, charter school students achieved, on average, 10.5 percentage points higher test scores than public school students and 9.2 percentage points higher than government-run Catholic school students.
In the same year, charter school students achieved higher scores on average than public sector students in all seven subjects where comparisons could be made.
The largest recorded difference over the years 2022-2025 was in Grade 9 Mathematics in 2024, where charter school pupils scored 14.1 percentage points higher than their public sector educated peers.
NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION – WHAT DOES IT MEAN? – ORANGE SHIRT DAY -pg.3
CANADA’S POPULATION STATS – NATIVE (5%) AND NON-NATIVE 95% – pg. 4
THE LAND STATS – pg. 5
LAND DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA- pg.6
FIRST NATION RESERVES – LAND ISSUES – pg. 7
NATIVE WOMEN – FORCED STERILIZATION/GENOCIDE STATS – US AND CANADA – pg. 9
EUGENICS “LAWS” IN CANADA/US – CANADA’S HISTORY OF EUGENICS “LAW” – pg. 10
INDIGENOUS WOMEN- LIVING AND EDUCATION STATS -pg. 11
ACTIVE DRINKING WATER ADVISORIES ON PUBLIC SYSTEMS – CANADA’S RESERVES – pg. 12
WHAT DOES RECONCILIATION REALLY MEAN? – pg. 13
NATIONAL DAY FOR TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION – WHAT DOES IT MEAN? -ORANGE SHIRT DAY
September 30th marks National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day –EVERY CHILD MATTERS;
Orange Shirt Day – Every Child Matters began in Williams Lake, British Columbia, on September 30, 2013. Established to honour Residential School Survivors, their families, and those who never returned home, it serves as a powerful reminder of the lasting impacts of the Residential School system. What began as a grassroots initiative has since evolved into a nationally recognized movement, with individuals, organizations, and communities across Canada participating in acts of remembrance, reflection, and reconciliation each year.
The orange shirt symbolizes the loss of culture, freedom, and self-esteem that many Indigenous children experienced. This day reminds us that “Every Child Matters”.
Public commemoration of this tragic chapter in Canada’s history (genocide), and its lasting effects, plays an essential role in advancing truth and reconciliation.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was established in response to Call to Action 80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which called on the federal government, in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples, to create a statutory holiday recognizing Survivors, their families, and communities while ensuring the history and legacy of residential schools are publicly remembered. Bill C-5, which established the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a federal statutory holiday, received Royal Assent on June 3, 2021.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day are both observed annually on September 30th, and they are dedicated to honouring Residential School Survivors, their families, and communities, and to recognize the lasting impacts of Canada’s Residential School system. These commemorations provide an opportunity to deepen Canada’s understanding of the intergenerational effects of residential schools and to reflect on their enduring legacy as part of the ongoing journey toward truth, healing, and reconciliation.
On September 30, Canadians are encouraged to wear orange in honour of Residential School Survivors and their families, and in remembrance of the children who never returned home.
Fast-forward to 18th-century Prussia, where an entirely different philosophy of education was emerging. The Prussian model of education wasn’t designed to create critical thinkers; it wasn’t even designed for kids. Prussian leaders built it to produce disciplined, obedient soldiers who would follow orders without question.
This was in response to the military weaknesses exposed by Prussia’s defeat by Napoleon. The defeat revealed shortcomings not only in military tactics but also in the population’s readiness and loyalty. This led Prussian leaders to recognize the need for a more unified, reliable, and well-trained citizenry that could support the state’s military and political objectives.
This shift in control allowed the state to decide what children learned and, more importantly, how they learned to think — or rather, not to think. In Prussia, schooling was a tool for control, shaping young people into compliant subjects who wouldn’t question authority or run tail in the face of a canon.
Origins and Importation
Prussian Roots: Developed in the early 1800s after Prussia’s defeat by Napoleon, the system aimed to create disciplined soldiers, unified citizens, and an obedient populace. [1, 2, 3]
American Adoption: In the 1840s, American educators traveled to Prussia, translated reports on their state-run schools, and brought the framework back to standardize a fragmented local schooling approach. [1, 2, 3]
Industrial Scaling: Later in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, industrialists and philanthropists—such as through the Rockefeller General Education Board—helped scale and fund this framework to supply a predictable, manageable workforce for factories;
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Garrett Carr’s debut adult novel is big-hearted and welcoming, opening with a collective voice that immediately sets the tone for the rest of the novel.
We were a hardy people, raised facing the Atlantic. A few thousand men, women and children, clinging to the coast and trying to stay dry. Our town wasn’t just a town, it was a logic and a fate.
The story is told through the “we” of the fishing town of Killybegs in Donegal, and it works brilliantly, filled with lovely, unforced colloquialisms that feel completely true to the place and the people.
We’re building Ellipsus as a platform that prioritizes transparency, trust, independence, and creative freedom. Writers shouldn’t have to trade their privacy or their ownership for good tools. The rise of AI scraping and big tech overreach only made that more urgent for us. —Rex at Ellipsus
Whatever your attitude toward emerging technologies, we can probably agree it’s tough to be online these days. The tools available seem to be multiplying for some and dwindling for others—particularly for those who don’t want to use generative AI. A growing distrust of big tech is leading people to search for less exploitative options than Google or Microsoft.
Fortunately for them (and also me), new developers are creating tools that don’t push AI without the opportunity to opt-in. One of those new tools is Ellipsus, a writing tool created by a small group of writers who wanted better collaborative document options, and who are solidly for transparency, privacy, and writers’ rights to their own work.
As a text editor, Ellipsus is a lot like Google Docs, but more focused on better performance for large docs. It’s got a git-style feature for better version control, richer permissions, flexibility, and creative customizations. It’s got a unique knack for supporting real-time collaboration, and is simple enough to start using right away.
How Ellipsus Addresses Concerns about AI, Privacy, and Access
Ellipsus has been very clear on their stance: no generative AI in the program, ever. They believe writers’ work shouldn’t be harvested to train models without consent. Generative AI, when built on creative labor, undermines originality, and they believe putting it inside a writing tool would be fundamentally counterproductive to fostering genuine voices. Ellipsus’s creators want it to be a safe space for writers, and are working on offering better encryption and privacy protections, too.
Things that Make Ellipsus Fun
Ellipsus has a vibrant Discord community of writers providing mutual support, betas, collaborators, and the opportunity to commune. Collaboration options in the documents themselves are pretty fun too—I love being able to create different drafts for different beta readers so no one has to feel put on the spot.
And another small but mighty feature is the variety of different skins you can apply to your program.
A Book about the Communist “Hell” (political prisoners sent to Siberia) – during communist hell – by the political prisoner and teachers Alexandr Solzhenitsyn;
EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn did not write a book called Road to Siberia, but he wrote extensively about the Soviet penal system and his own imprisonment. His most famous works documenting the brutal labor camps include The Gulag Archipelago and the novella One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Key Details on Solzhenitsyn’s Exile and Works
Imprisonment: Arrested in February 1945 for criticizing Joseph Stalin in a private letter, spending eight years in labor camps and subsequent internal exile. [1, 2]
The Gulag Archipelago:A monumental three-volume historical investigation of the Soviet forced labor camp system, drawing on testimonies from 227 survivors and his own time inside. [1, 2, 3]
Return to Russia: After the fall of the Soviet Union, he famously returned to Russia via a train journey from Vladivostok in 1994. [1, 2]
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn[a][b]ⓘ (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008)[6][7] was a Soviet and Russian author and dissident who helped to raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, especially the Gulag prison system. He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature”.[8]His nonfiction work The Gulag Archipelago “amounted to a head-on challenge to the Soviet state” and sold tens of millions of copies.[9
During the Khrushchev Thaw, Solzhenitsyn was released and exonerated. He started writing novels about his experiences and repression in the Soviet Union. In 1962, he published his first novel, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich—an account of Stalinist repressions—with approval from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. His last work to be published in the Soviet Union was Matryona’s Place in 1963. After Khrushchev lost power, Soviet authorities unsuccessfully tried to discourage Solzhenitsyn from writing. His novels published in other countries included Cancer Ward in 1966, In the First Circle in 1968 and August 1914 in 1971. The history The Gulag Archipelago was published in 1973. The last outraged authorities and, in 1974, he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship and flown to West Germany.[12] He soon moved to Switzerland and then, in 1976, to Vermont in the United States with his family. He continued to write and his Soviet citizenship was restored in 1990. He returned to Russia four years later and remained there until his death in 2008.
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