Looking at making real and transformative changes to Ontario’s approach to education is long overdue. It’s time to shake up the system, facilitate school choice and end the province’s one-size-fits-all government-run education system. Pictured: Education Minister Stephen Lecce. Photo Credit: Stephen Lecce/Facebook.
Ontario is pouring more money than ever into government-run schools. In fact, spending is outpacing inflation two-to-one. Yet test scores are falling and many schools are in a state of physical disrepair.
Ontario’s students deserve the option to experience better opportunities. The time has come for the Ford government to aggressively advocate for school choice.
Statistics are jaw dropping in terms of just how far behind students have fallen in recent years.
Ontario students’ test scores for 15-year-olds have fallen by 35 points in math and 12 points in reading over the past two decades, according to a study released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Experts consider a 20-point drop in performance to be equivalent to a loss of one year of learning. That means today’s 15-year-old Ontario students are nearly two years behind their 2002 counterparts in math and more than half-a-year behind in reading.
Yet Ontario’s unions and education establishment want more of the status quo. Taxpayers are told if just a little more money were spent on the government-run education system, all these statistics could be turned around.
Here’s the reality: government spending on education has gone up at the very same time test scores have gone down.
Back in 2002, Ontario spent $14.3 billion on education. Last year, 21 years later, Ontario spent $34.7 billion. That’s a 143 per cent increase, more than double the rate of inflation.
If money were the answer to Ontario’s education problems, they would have been solved long ago.
The time has come for the Ford government to consider profound reform.
The percentage of Ontario students enrolled in independent schools, which aren’t run by the government, has increased by 40 per cent over the past 20 years. Parents across the province have begun to realize that having their children trapped in underperforming government-run schools isn’t the best pathway to success.
It’s time for the government to give Ontario parents options. They should be empowered to send their kids to the school of their choice. More students in independent schools means lower costs for taxpayers and healthy competition in the education sector.
Helping parents pay for the cost of independent school tuition could save taxpayers a bundle. If the government is willing to spend $13,500 a year to send Ontario students to declining government-run schools, why not offer parents a $10,000 tax credit toward sending those kids to independent schools?
That would drive down costs and facilitate competition. Ontario’s teachers’ unions would be forced to compete for students and funding, which could lead to positive innovation in government-run schools.
It’s also high time for Ontario to look at charter schools.
In the late-1990s, it became clear to the Klein government in Alberta that performance at government-run schools was falling short. The Alberta government passed legislation allowing the creation of publicly funded charter schools.
Alberta’s charter schools still exist within the public system. They don’t charge tuition and they’re funded by the government. But each individual school is given autonomy when it comes to the approach it takes to education and unions are kept firmly out of classrooms, as teachers do not have to belong to a union.
The upshot? It costs Alberta taxpayers 32 per cent less to send a kid to a charter school and the average Alberta charter school student is outperforming students in government-run schools by more than 14 per cent, according to statistics from the C.D. Howe Institute.
Improving education outcomes and saving taxpayer dollars is a win-win. Our children would have better test scores and be more prepared for life after school. And taxpayers could save money by restraining ballooning spending on government-run schools and have more cash to invest in improving school infrastructure.
Looking at making real and transformative changes to Ontario’s approach to education is long overdue. It’s time to shake up the system, facilitate school choice and end the province’s one-size-fits-all government-run education system.
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
