Setting the record straight on home schooling
It’s time to ask whether offering four public school systems is the best approach
As a new school year begins, it’s a good time to remind ourselves how different Ontario’s education delivery is from the rest of Canada’s. It’s also time to ask whether offering four public school systems divided between English and French, Public and Catholic is the best approach to delivering education in Ontario.
Patrick Daly’s recent column in the Hamilton Spectator “setting the record straight” on cost differences in funding Roman Catholic separate public school education compared to neighbourhood public school education is a good place to start. He reminds us that diversity, and more choice for parents, in the public sector can have positive effects.
If Daly is correct that English Catholic boards typically receive less government funding per student than public schools — and that appears true for his examples of Hamilton, Halton, and Toronto — then the spending implications provincewide are significant.
Across the three areas that Daly considers, average funding for 2017/18 will be $254.22 less for each student in English Catholic schools than for their peers in English public schools. The difference applied across Ontario for about 560,000 students in English Catholic schools will save taxpayers a minimum $142 million.
Student data outcomes typically point to higher results for students in the Catholic system as well. Compare, for example, the recent provincial test results for grade 3 students in reading, writing and mathematics in the three districts Daly noted across public and Catholic boards. In almost all points of comparison, the results were higher for the students in Catholic boards. What explains the difference? The presence of religion, smaller boards, socio-economic factors, family structure, or any other number of frequently cited and studied differences? Hard to say. What’s clear is that when parents can choose, and educators, principals and schools can design distinct approaches to education, better outcomes can result despite less funding being available.
Given the positive indicators of the differences in cost and results, it would appear that choice within public sector education is worth our attention.
But so is choice outside of government schools.
More than six per cent of Ontario students come from families who choose an independent school for their education. About half choose a religiously-oriented education for their children, but want something other than a Roman Catholic school environment. Unlike the next five largest provinces in Canada, parents of students at Ontario independent schools must manage the entire cost of educating their children. By contrast, the other five largest provinces provide independent schools with up to 60 per cent of the operational amount awarded per public school pupil. So, while the Catholic schools Daly points to potentially save taxpayers more than $140 million dollars, the more than 136,000 students who will attend independent schools or be home schooled this fall (based on 2014/15 enrolments) will save taxpayers substantially more. At average per student spending of $12,753 in Ontario (2013/14 data), that amounts to over $1.7 billion in savings to taxpayers.
Of course, we know not all of them would have chosen a government school since parents in our times increasingly are choosing forms of education outside of their neighbourhood public school. Indeed almost every form of schooling other than the local public school option has grown and continues to grow across Canada.
Daly is right to set the record straight about how some education options are more cost effective than others. What needs to be added to his corrective is that non-government schooling options, even when partially-funded as is the case in every other non-Atlantic province, save taxpayers even more, and offer parents and students the choice and opportunity they seek.
More than six per cent of Ontario students come from families who choose an independent school for their education.