Future of English public schools is in peril

Here’s how to slow the bleeding, Jon Bradley and Sam Allison suggest.

The recent report by the Fraser Institute (Where Our Students are Educated: Measuring Student Enrolment in Canada, 2017) highlights the steady enrolment decline in English-language public schools in Quebec, something that has grave consequences for the community’s future.

English public schools are bleeding students at an alarming rate: The decline was 19.9 per cent over the 14 years ending in 2014-15 (and there is no reason to assume any improvement since; quite the contrary). This absolute reduction from 105,600 students to 84,500, represents a full onepercentage-point drop, from 9.5 to 8.5 per cent, in the proportion of the school population provincewide who are in English-language public schools.

The Fraser Institute reported that every province, save Alberta, experienced a decline in students attending school. This general countrywide shift is attributed to the fact that the numbers of Canadians in the five to 17 age range fell by 6.6 per cent between 2000 and 2015. This demographic reality will be reflected in school enrolment figures for decades, and certainly is one of the factors that explain the plight of Quebec’s English schools. However it does not explain why those schools are experiencing a precipitous decline that is three times the Canadian average.

The survey also noted that Quebec has the second-highest percentage of students enrolled in private schools, at 12.3 per cent, with British Columbia slightly higher, at 12.9 per cent. Between 2000-2001 and 2014-15, the number of students attending private schools in Quebec increased from 105,000 to 122,000, a 16 per cent rise. The Fraser Institute report also notes that “every province has seen a decline in the proportion of students enrolled in the public system.”

The dearth of data related to the decisions made by English-speaking parents complicates accurate projections. Unlike French-speaking Quebecers, some English-speaking parents have multiple options: English public or private, French public or private and/or home-schooling. However, the Fraser Institute’s data are disquieting and forecasts dark times ahead for Englishlanguage public schools.

Even assuming that Quebec will not permit parents the free choice regarding language of schooling that they are entitled to under the United Nations Charter on the Rights of Children, there are nonetheless some helpful steps that could be taken:

The government’s own figures for 2016 indicate that Quebec taxpayers directly subsidized private schools to the tune of approximately half-a-billion dollars and, further, provided millions more in indirect subsides via reduced property taxes and school foundation arrangements. This outlay of public funds, direct and indirect, must cease.

The government needs to loosen the restrictive regulations that create two classes of Canadian citizens. The so-called “Canada Clause” must be re-interpreted so that Canadian citizens are treated equally wherever they may have been educated in English: Australia, England, the United States or Canada.

There are too many English school boards on a shrinking landscape. Reduce the number from nine to four, eliminate the many superfluous advisory organizations that stifle creativity and foster entrenchment, and increase school board curriculum responsibilities so as to allow them to honour community realities.

The ministry must recognize that rural/remote English schools need special protection. These institutions need additional targeted funding, outside and above the norms, so as to meet the demands of their unique areas.

Following the example of English parents playing the lottery for restrictive French-immersion spots, allow French-speaking parents an opportunity to queue for available spaces in English schools. This will “top-up” classrooms, allowing maximum use of public facilities.

These suggestions would bring only moderate gains to the English-language public school system and do not denigrate the spirit of Bill 101.

Elected members of the legislature must recognize that the very existence of English language public education is at stake; concerted action must be undertaken immediately to not only halt additional erosion, but to institute creative long-term plans to bolster a once-vibrant system.