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Rats Deserting a Sinking Ship?
The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada recently released Why are Ontario Parents Leaving the Public School System? - a report showing that even though funding for Ontario public schools has been steadily increasing (from about $14.4 billion in 2002/03 to about $19.5 billion in 2009/10 - about a 36% increase), enrollment in Ontario publicly-funded schools has been dropping (from not quite 2 million in 2002/03 to just over 1.9 million in 2009/10 - about a 5% decrease). At the same time, enrollment in Ontario privately-funded schools has been increasing (by about 8% between 2000 and 2005, the latest year for which figures are available).
Perhaps as a reflection of its desire to have all Ontario students attend publicly-funded schools, Ontario is the only major Canadian province that does not pay a portion of private school tuition fees. However, the ever-rising percentage of students leaving the public school system suggests that the government’s policy of spending more and more on its public schools and nothing on its private schools is backfiring.
Given all the hurdles put in place to discourage parents sending their kids to anything other than the public system that’s quite an achievement. It’d be interesting to see what would happen if the playing field was made even remotely level. I suspect more competition for fewer kids is not something the public system would thrive in and so we have to crazy claims and arguments to keep it from happening.