Michael Zwaagstra: Ontario Parents Deserve More Education Options

A parent walks his children to school in Milton, Ont., on Nov. 4, 2022. The Canadian Press/Nick Iwanyshyn

Commentary

If you’re a parent with kids in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), with its woke indoctrination, teacher strikes, ongoing school violence, and lack of focus on the academic basics, there’s a good chance you want something better for your children.

What other educational options do you have? Not many outside of government schools, unfortunately.

You could enrol your children in an independent school. However, expect to pay relatively high tuition fees because no public funding follows your children to a non-government school. As a result, the independent school option is usually only available to wealthy parents.

Another option would be to homeschool your children. While homeschooling works well for some families, it’s not feasible if a parent is unable to stay at home to teach their children.

You could transfer your children to one of the TDSB specialty schools—perhaps a sports school or a dance school. But unfortunately, the TDSB recently changed its admission policy so that students are selected by a random lottery system. Thus, only the luck of the draw determines whether your child makes it into one of these schools. Most parents are likely uncomfortable leaving something this important to chance.

One other option is to switch your children over to the separate school system, in this case the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB). However, there’s little difference between TDSB and TCDSB schools—both use the same government curriculum guides and are equally vulnerable to teacher strikes.

It’s a similar situation in the rest of Ontario. As a result, most Ontario parents have little choice but to enrol their children in their neighbourhood government school. This is unacceptable. We wouldn’t accept a government monopoly over dental clinics, grocery stores, or gas stations, and we shouldn’t tolerate such limited choices in education either. Ontario parents deserve more options.

Fortunately, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Other provinces already provide parents with far more choices, and Ontario could follow their lead.

For example, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec subsidize independent schools by allowing some per student funding (anywhere from 35 to 70 percent) to follow students to schools of their choice. This makes it easier for independent schools to keep tuition fees affordable, which means middle- and even lower-income parents can choose an independent school.

Some provinces offer even more options. In 1994, Alberta passed legislation that facilitated the creation of charter schools, which are autonomous schools that are publicly funded but operated by an independent board. Charter schools are non-sectarian and cannot charge tuition fees. Currently, there are 40 approved charter schools in Alberta.

Each charter school has a unique mission. By doing some background research, parents could identify a charter school that would be a good fit for their children.

Another benefit of charter schools is they can be used by communities to keep their local schools open. For example, in 2023 the trustees of Wetaskiwin Public Schools near Edmonton voted to close the only school in the rural hamlet of Gwynne. Instead of accepting this closure, a group of parents and community members applied to establish a charter school. Gwynne Valley Rural Academy opened in the fall of 2024 and it’s still going strong.

Imagine what parents in rural Ontario could do if they could establish charter schools in their communities. No longer would they be at the mercy of government school boards that vote to shut down small community schools and bus their children to larger centres.

At a minimum, loosening catchment areas within government school boards would also be a step in the right direction. Both B.C. and Alberta make it relatively easy for parents to enrol their children at government schools in different neighbourhoods, so long as space is available. This small step would at least provide more choices for parents.

Ontario parents deserve the same educational options available in the western provinces. There’s no reason for any student to be stuck in a failing school.

Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.