Think-tank urges more private schools
Alberta should gradually double or triple the number of students enrolled in independent schools to foster innovation and reduce the “monopoly” of teachers’ associations, says a new position paper from a faith-based think-tank.
With 4.4 per cent of Alberta students enrolled in Alberta private schools in the 2014-15 school year, the province could create incentives to increase that enrolment without disrupting the public school system, said Cardus president and CEO Michael Van Pelt in a new report called, Better is Possible.
“Government’s heavy involvement in Canadian K-12 education has created a monolithic and monopoly situation,” Van Pelt writes in the report, released last Tuesday. “It struggles to embrace diverse educational approaches animated by social and market forces ... that push communities to continually offer better goods and services to consumers.”
Increasing the number of independent schools would give parents more choice, improve access to faith-based education and programs for students with disabilities, could improve test scores and save government money, he argued.
Collective bargaining would be strengthened, and provinces would be less likely to order teachers back to work during a strike if there were a “critical mass” of independent schools running, Van Pelt said.
All provinces should increase by five-to-10 percentage points the total share of K-12 students studying in private schools, he said. In a Saturday phone interview, he didn’t specify a timeline for the shift, saying provinces should experiment with policies to increase independent school enrolment with a growth goal in mind.
B.C. has the highest proportion of K-12 students in private schools, followed by Quebec.
In a case study at the end of the report, Van Pelt said the share of Alberta students in private schools is relatively low because school boards were permitted in 1988 to absorb or create alternative schools.
Van Pelt said the Alberta government could make private options more attractive by increasing the per-student funding to independent schools, streamlining the regulations required to open a school, providing transportation subsidies to families or offering multi-year grants to make funding predictable.
Alberta subsidizes private schools more than any other province, granting accredited private schools either 60 or 70 per cent of the funding per student that a public school receives, depending on their level of accountability. This year, the government is paying $274 million to private schools and early learning services.
Joel French, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, disagrees that splintering public money into more school systems would improve education.
The non-profit organization has advocated for government to reduce the private school perstudent funding rate to 50 per cent of public school students. French would like to see it drop to zero.
Private schools offering programs in religion or for students with disabilities don’t compete directly with most publicly funded schools, he said.
“Obviously, there’s a balance,” he said. “We don’t want one system that’s just the same for every person no matter where they live and what their needs are.”
Public, Catholic, francophone and charter schools in Alberta are also more accountable to the public, French said. Unlike independent schools, they must release financial information, and their educators, as Alberta Teachers’ Association members, are held to a high standard.
French is skeptical that further subsidizing private education will drive up enrolment. Ontario does not fund independent schools, yet, enrolment is proportionally higher than Alberta.