I am working on a final paper for my Doctoral class, “Policy Issues in Education”. The writing below is my “abstract”, which is an academic term for a summary. I am looking forward to posting the paper when it is finished.

In the ever-changing world of education, is it time for a new public funding model for Canadian private schools? What would such a model look like? Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are the subject of debate and critique in academic education literature (Menashy, 2014). 50% of the provinces in Canada provide some form of funding for private education (CBC News, 2022; Hunt et al., 2021; Teyssier, 2009). Additionally, there is precedent of successful PPPs in education around the world. In countries such as Finland, Sweden, and Hong Kong (Boeskens, 2016; Schleicher, 2018).

The concept of neoliberalism (Thorsen & Lie, 2006; Vallier, 2021; Venugopal, 2015) is used to understand the numerous drawbacks of PPPs in education. Primarily, due to the fact that “free-markets”, a major tenet of neoliberalism, do not lead to equitable access to education for entire populations, favoring the rich (Menashy, 2014). Due to fee paying, access and bias in the admissions process, and language barriers (Macpherson et al., 2014). This paper navigates said drawbacks to suggest a new PPP which empowers parents to choose which school will best meet the needs of their children, whether public or private. With considerations in order to be inclusive and beneficial to Canadian provincial education systems. Such as: intentional regulation for private schools to increase accountability in the admissions process, third party admissions services, ensuring school accreditation, and provincial teacher certification. Concluding with the proposal of a 10-year pilot project for this new PPP in the province of New Brunswick.

References

Boeskens, L. (2016). Regulating Publicly Funded Private Schools. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/5jln6jcg80r4-en.pdf?expires=1680804715&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=C8A9C9E8981760E966597BA0F95A738B

CBC News. (2022, September 21). New report suggests funding to private schools growing faster than public schools in B.C. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-private-schools-491-million-public-funding-1.6589571#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20formula%20that,cent%20of%20the%20education%20budget.

Hunt, D., Momoh, A., & Van Pelt, D. (2021). Funding all students: A comparative economic analysis of the fiscal cost to support students in Ontario independent schools. Cardus. https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/reports/the-cost-to-fund-students-in-ontario-independent-schools/

Macpherson, I., Robertson, S., & Walford, G. (Eds.). (2014). Education, privatisation and social justice: case studies from Africa, south Asia and southeast Asia. Symposium Books Ltd.

Menashy, F. (2014). Private sector engagement in education worldwide: Conceptual and critical challenges. Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2013, 20, 137-165.

Schleicher, A. (2018). PISA 2018 Insights and Interpretations. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA%202018%20Insights%20and%20Interpretations%20FINAL%20PDF.pdf

Teyssier, R. (2009). The public funding of private education: A quantitative study of ‘who gets what, when and how’ in four Canadian provinces. Annual Congress of the Canadian Political Science Association held at Carleton University, Ottawa.

Thorsen, D. E., & Lie, A. (2006). What is neoliberalism?. University of Oslo, Department of Political Science, Manuscript, 1-21.

Vallier, K. (2021, June 9). Neoliberalism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neoliberalism/#NeolIdeaTheoVenugopal, R. (2015). Neoliberalism as concept. Economy and society, 44(2), 165-187.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. It was a pleasure to spend time with you today.

Peace & Blessings, 

– Josiah