Matthew Lau: More choice would help clean up Ontario school mess

Families and students are not one-size-fits-all, so their education system shouldn’t be, either. Photo by Putzodiac/Getty Images

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With a new school year approaching, it’s time to remind everyone that Ontario’s public school system is a gigantic mess. Ontarians may not actually want or need such a reminder but the government and unions are determined to deliver it anyway. Their negotiations for a new contract have stalled before even substantially beginning, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario — which is essentially taxpayer-funded since public-school teachers are forced to pay union dues — is readying a strike mandate and the provincial government is preparing taxpayer-funded advertisements to criticize the unions.

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As taxpayer costs mount, the quality of Ontario’s public education, already far too low and sliding for two decades according to test scores, seems bound to deteriorate further. School violence and disorder have escalated significantly in recent years. Many students regularly use artificial intelligence, but more than half of Ontario teachers report receiving no training from their school or board on how to instruct students on AI use.

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If the government and unions are determined to remind us the public school system is a mess, a steady stream of studies and evidence reminds us of the solution: school choice. Giving families alternatives to the government-run school system provides access to better education, while increased competition forces improved quality by breaking the government/union monopoly. School choice can also deliver fiscal benefits to taxpayers as government funding for students in unionized government-run schools is higher than for students outside it.

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A recent report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty evaluated the impacts of the state’s three school-choice programs, which cover three separate regions — Milwaukee, Racine, and the rest of the state. Based on data on more than 100,000 students between the 2018-19 and 2022-23 school years, the authors found that those who participated in the Milwaukee program experienced the equivalent of 1.06 years of education gain, those in the Racine program (the smallest of the three) 1.85 years, and those in the statewide program covering other regions, 0.46 years. Not only did students learn more, taxpayers saved: the average student in government-run schools cost taxpayers US$16,361 per year excluding federal aid, but the school-choice vouchers amounted to only $11,305 for K-8 students and $13,799 for grades nine to 12.

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Another recent study, this one from Blueprint Labs based at MIT, examined a different form of school choice: charter schools. They are government-funded but operate with more autonomy than traditional government-run schools. Common in the United States, in this country they exist only in Alberta. The Blueprint Labs study examined the effects of Massachusetts charter schools from 2002 to 2022 on standardized test scores, SAT outcomes and college enrolment.

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The results? Over two decades, charter schools improved test scores by 0.215 standard deviations for science, 0.145 for math and 0.081 for English per year of enrolment. For context, for an average student in a normal distribution, an improvement of 0.215 standard deviations means he or she outperforms approximately 59 per cent of the population instead of 50 per cent. Particularly large improvements in test scores occurred among the most disadvantaged students, including those with low English proficiency and from low-income households. Charter school attendance, the study found, also improved SAT and post-secondary outcomes.