Throw more money at it.
That’s the solution mainstream politicians seem to be turning to as outcomes in schools decline and parents demand better.
But if more money were the solution to declining outcomes in government-run schools, the issue surely would have been solved long ago.
Take the province of Ontario as an example.
Back in 2002, Ontario spent $14.3 billion on education. Last year, that number hit $37.6 billion.
That’s a 163 per cent increase over a 22 year time span, more than double the rate of inflation.
At the same time, enrollment in government-run schools remained largely flat, despite population increases, as more and more parents decided to start sending their kids to independent schools.
Flat enrollment. Funding increases at twice the rate of inflation. With those two factors added together, one would think that, should money be the answer to declining performance in government-run schools, things would have turned around, right?
Wrong.
Instead, despite flat enrollment and surging government spending, test scores in Ontario are sinking like a rock in a pond.
Over the past two decades, Ontario teenagers’ test scores have fallen by 35 points in math and 12 points in reading.
What does that mean in real terms? Experts argue that at 20-point drop in performance is equivalent to the loss of an entire year’s worth of learning. In other words, over the past 20 years, Ontario students have lost nearly two years’ worth of learning in math and over half a year’s worth of learning in reading.
Falling test scores have coincided with surging government spending. If throwing more money at the existing education system in Ontario was the answer, test scores should have gone up, not down, over that 20-year period.
What, then, is the solution? Shaking up the status quo.
Declining outcomes are a sad reality in provinces throughout Canada.
The answer is to turn to what’s worked in Canada’s most innovative province when it comes to education: Alberta.
Alberta introduced charter schools in the late 1990s, when Premier Ralph Klein sought alternative solutions after he saw just how clearly Alberta’s government-run schools were falling short.
And so, Alberta became the first province in Canada, and so far, the only, to introduce charter schools.
Importantly, charter schools are not private schools. They exist within the public school system, but they offer parents greater specialization, have a clear record of better test scores, cost less per pupil, and keep unions out of the classrooms.
In terms of greater specialization, Alberta has charter schools that focus on things like catering to kids with special needs or focusing on students with special skills in areas like sports or the arts.
They don’t charge tuition because they’re government funded. But the schools have more autonomy and are out of reach of the influence of teachers’ unions.
The results?
Students at Alberta’s charter schools are outperforming those at government-run schools by a full letter grade on the province’s standardized tests. And charter schools cost the Alberta taxpayer on average 32 per cent less per enrolled student.
Parents deserve more choice when it comes to where to send their kids to school. And Charter schools are a proven avenue to facilitate that choice.
As well, taxpayers stand to save big. If students in other provinces could attend charter schools, where costs are nearly one-third less per student than regular government-run schools, it could go a long way to improving the fiscal health of provincial governments across the country.
There’s one more way to judge the success of charter schools: demand. Do parents actually want to send their kids there?
In Alberta, for every student that is currently attending a charter school, there’s two on the waitlist.
Clearly, then, parents are hungering for more choice in education. And charter schools are the best avenue for more choice.
Charter schools are a success in Alberta based on every metric. That should serve as a lesson for education ministers elsewhere across Canada who keep throwing more money at the status quo.
The time for education reform in Canada is now. And that means it’s time for Canada’s other provinces to embrace charter schools.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and 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.
