Exploring School Choice in Canada: Who Chooses What and Why? (original) (raw)
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Introduction to the special issue: Studying school choice in Canada
education policy analysis archives
In this article, we introduce the special issue that illuminates issues in school choice and education marketization in contemporary Canada. We begin with a discussion of the proliferation of market models across the globe and the kind of questions that have arisen as public policymakers, philanthropists, and other private interests have embraced and advanced market-oriented reforms. Then we turn to Canada, and briefly discuss the scholarly literature on education privatization and school choice in the past two decades. After that, we present the five articles, highlighting how each piece contributes to a deeper understanding of the changing landscape of choice and competition, as well as how these changes impact schools and communities in a diverse, multicultural country. We conclude by discussing the importance of continuing empirical research in order to inform important debates about how to best meet the needs of the students in a democratic society.
In this article, we introduce the special issue that illuminates issues in school choice and education marketization in contemporary Canada. We begin with a discussion of the proliferation of market models across the globe and the kind of questions that have arisen as public policymakers, philanthropists, and other private interests have embraced and advanced market-oriented reforms. Then we turn to Canada, and briefly discuss the scholarly literature on education privatization and school choice in the past two decades. After that, we present the five articles, highlighting how each piece contributes to a deeper understanding of the changing landscape of choice and competition, as well as how these changes impact schools and communities in a diverse, multicultural country. We conclude by discussing the importance of continuing empirical research in order to inform important debates about how to best meet the needs of the students in a democratic society.
Understanding School Choice in Canada
Understanding School Choice in Canada
In a well-written introduction to the policy debates on school choice, Lynn Bosetti and Dianne Gereluk move readers away from the "strong emotional responses" (p. 3) that many scholars, educators, policymakers, and parents have on this subject. By examining the philosophical roots of school choice debates in Canada, the authors provide a well argued, reasoned, and highly readable text on what is normally a divisive subject. The authors start their discussion of school choice through examination of an important assumption in many of the debates underway currently on school choice. "Normative assumptions regarding the aims and purpose of schooling are not always acknowledged by detractors or advocates of school choice theory" (p. 5), and the introduction argues that many reports and studies fail to "attend to unique contexts in which particular policies originate" (p. 7). These two foundational points help explain the uniqueness and significance of the book: rooting school choice discussion in the original purpose of public education and how each local educational agency is allowed to enact this duty to prepare students for a future engagement with the world at large. What was fascinating to me as an American is the number of school choice opportunities available in many Canadian provinces. School districts have latitude in providing school choice to citizens, a situation that is not present in the United States. The Canadian Constitution protects which rights "Francophone, Anglophone and Aboriginal people" (p. 8) possess concerning schooling, in contrast with the absence of educational rights in the U.S. Constitution. In Canada, the success of the school system, as measured on international tests, is beyond repute. In the United States, as Bosetti and Gereluk observe, many supporters of school choice are trying to remove children from a "failing school" and provide placement in a better educational opportunity. The authors want their book to "move beyond the polemic debates about whether school choice is good or bad and towards how it can be conceived and implemented to complement and enhance public education in a democracy" (p. 8). This objective is significant in its goal of improving public discourse on school choice in the western hemisphere. The introduction concludes with a two page set of definitions of various terminology associated with school choice. The authors' decision to include these definitions strengthens the book by providing a set of definitions that students and scholars may utilize in the school choice discussions. A set of standardized definitions is a critical factor in any policy debate, and the location of these terms in the book is a convenient reference for scholars. International readers are likely to appreciate this glossary as they create comparisons between their home educational systems and Canadian ones. The definitions of school choice terminology are especially relevant
Charting the Rise of School Choice across Canadian Provinces: A Policy Index
Canadian Journal of Political Science, 2021
This article introduces and discusses the findings of the Canada School Choice Policy Index (CSCPI). This is the first index of its kind that measures the development of school choice policies across the Canadian provinces from 1980 to 2020 using eight unique indicators of choice. In contrast to other countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the CSCPI reveals that although Canada has witnessed an increase in school choice over time, this increase has largely been contained within public education systems rather than in the expansion of private education options. Our findings raise the importance of future research to address growing choice in public education systems across the provinces, in addition to choice in the private sphere. Résumé Cet article présente et discute les résultats de l'Indice canadien des politiques de choix scolaire (IPCS). Il s'agit du premier indice de ce type qui mesure l'évolution des politiques de choix de l'école dans les provinces canadiennes de 1980 à 2020 à l'aide de huit indicateurs uniques de choix. Contrairement aux autres pays de l'OCDE, l'IPSC révèle que, bien que le Canada ait connu une augmentation du choix d'écoles au fil du temps, cette augmentation a été largement contenue dans les systèmes d'éducation publique plutôt que par l'expansion des options d'éducation privée. Nos résultats soulèvent l'importance de recherches futures portant sur le choix croissant dans les systèmes d'éducation publique dans les provinces, en plus du choix dans la sphère privée.
Historical Analysis of School Choice in Ontario: Freedom and Inequality
Encounters in Theory and History of Education, 2021
The article analyzes the contemporary school choice debate in Ontario in relation to the neoliberal models of education instituted by other provinces, and places key issues of the debate within Canada’s historical context. In the first section, this paper focuses on tracing out the push for neoliberal school choice in Ontario within the broader history of its development in Canada, with particular attention to Alberta and British Columbia. The second section examines two aspects of the school choice debate: the issues of freedom of choice, as well as racial and social inequality. Finally, these aspects of school choice are placed alongside Milton Friedman’s voucher school model and the history of education in Ontario. This juxtaposition reveals some of the regulations needed to mitigate the harmful effects of school choice in Ontario.
The changing landscape of school choice in Canada: From pluralism to parental preference?
education policy analysis archives
This paper provides a descriptive account of the growing landscape of school choice in Canada through a comparative analysis of funding and student enrolment in the public, independent and home-based education sectors in each province. Given that the provinces have responsibility for K-12 education, the mixture of public, independent and home school education varies rather widely by province, as does the level of funding and regulation. Delivery and funding of public education in Canada has long prioritized limited linguistic and religious pluralism, providing various options for English or French, and Catholic or Protestant alternatives to qualified parents. More recently growing numbers of parents have been seeking more options for their children’s education. This has fueled slow but steady growth in independent schools and home schooling.
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On the Recent Apocalyptic Tone Adopted in Canadian Sociology
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2005
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