B.C. should halt public funding to private schools

As the B.C. government consults on how it will allocate money in its next budget, a potentially easy win awaits on the education front as annually the government provides hundreds of millions of dollars in public funding to private schools.

If the provincial government were to end taxpayer subsidies to just the elite private schools — that charge substantial tuition fees based largely on prestige and exclusivity — it could immediately redirect much-needed funding to special needs students in public schools.

The laundry list of elite private schools in B.C. that charge sky-high tuition fees and still rake in public funding include: Shawinigan Lake School (tuition $27,200), St. George’s School ($24,950), Stratford Hall ($23,050), St. Michaels University School ($22,980), West Point Grey Academy ($22,470), York House School ($22,400), Crofton House School ($22,000), and the list goes on.

If the public subsidy to elite private schools were eliminated, how many taxpayer dollars could be freed up?

For a conservative estimate, we can look at total funding to private schools classified as ìGroup 2î by the province like those above (that can charge as much tuition and spend as much as they like).

There are more complicated cases of Group 2 schools: one special needs school and First Nations schools, for which I will assume public funding will be maintained (and so are excluded from my estimate of potential savings).

According to Ministry of Education figures, the remaining Group 2 schools received just over 10 per cent of total private school funding in the 2016/17 school year.

Assuming these schools continue to receive approximately the same share of public funding, they will rake in about $43 million in provincial grants in 2018/19.

How big a difference could this funding make to special needs students? The provincial government earmarked an estimated $509 million for special needs funding in public schools this year. Adding $43 million to this total would represent a substantial boost of more than eight per cent.

Increased support for special needs students is essential. BC saw the number of special education teachers decline almost 25 per cent between 2000 and 2016, and the ratio of special needs students to special education teachers has increased. Just two weeks into the current school year, parents of kids with disabilities had already reported nearly 100 incidents of these students being asked to stay home, sent home early, or separated from their class, among other types of exclusion.

Public funding of elite private schools goes well beyond the grants I’ve mentioned with these schools benefitting from a host of tax breaks (including one based on the rather creative idea that recess and lunch be classified as a child care service).

The case against publicly funding elite private schools is clear cut. Tens of millions of dollars in budgetary savings should be invested immediately to support kids with special needs in our public schools, whom we have let down for far too long.

Alex Hemingway is an economist and Public Policy Analyst at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office. He researches the state of BC’s public services, including education, health care, social services and regulation, and investigates the taxation system and its relationship to inequality, including how the government can provide high-quality and accessible public services.