Toward a More Diverse and Resilient Education Sector

Introduction 

This brief makes the case for expanding Alberta’s conception of public education, and emphasizing private (hereafter, independent) school sector expansion in forthcoming reforms. Where an emphasis on expanding secular charter schools exists, an equal or greater emphasis should be placed on expanding the number of and enrolment at independent schools in Alberta. 

Context 

Alberta is a province that is ripe to push for an incremental shift towards more independent schooling. The province has an innovative and diverse history in the provision of education; it was an early adopter of providing government funding to independent schools and to this day is the only province with charter schools. However, despite some of the most generous funding of independent schools in Canada, Alberta independent schools’ share of provincial K–12 enrolment, at approximately 4 percent, is about half the average of other funded provinces (7.7%), and less than one-third that of neighbouring province British Columbia (13.2%) (Statistics Canada 2020). This means that the vast majority of Alberta children are not receiving the additional benefits that come with attaining an education in an independent school setting. These meager results are at least partially due to structural barriers to independent schooling in Alberta. This brief makes the case for removing those barriers and enabling Alberta’s educational sector to benefit from pluralism in the same way that leading jurisdictions around the world have benefited. 

Adding Value 

Cardus is a social-policy think tank, committed to a flourishing society for the common good. Our education research, in particular, is used by experts in the non-government school sector throughout North America. Two of our datasets—the Cardus Education Survey (CES) and Who Chooses Independent Schools and Why (hereafter, Who Chooses)—are the primary sources informing this brief. 

Before Cardus launched the CES in 2011, there was very little quantitative measurement to prove or disprove claims made about various school-sector graduate outcomes in Canada and the United States. Now, with nearly a decade’s worth of data (the largest dataset of its kind), our education measurements have become the benchmark study of non-government school outcomes globally. Similarly, the Who Chooses data is the first of its kind, comparing representative findings in the three provinces of Alberta, BC, and Ontario.

Part 1: Dispelling Myths about Independent Education with Evidence 

Characteristics of High-School Graduates from North America’s Benchmark Study 

The following are some of the characteristics that differentiate graduates of independent schools from government-run schools, based on the findings of the CES (Pennings et al. 2012; 2014; Green et al. 2016; 2018a; 2018b): 

More engaged: Independent school graduates participate in more neighbourhood and community groups as well as in arts and culture initiatives.

More generous: They volunteer and give more of their financial resources than their government-school peers, to a wide variety of causes.

More focused on neighbour: Evangelical Protestant school graduates, in particular, contribute to the common good in a culture in which they express feeling unwelcome. Regardless, they are committed to constructively engaging with the culture and contributing to it.

Express their identity through their work: Graduates of independent non-religious schools are more likely to hold higher-status employment positions, and they have a wide variety of fulfilment expectations of their job, such as that it be helpful, creative, worthwhile, and relational. Graduates of Evangelical Protestant schools (and of religious homeschooling) have a strong sense of vocational calling and seek jobs that fulfil that calling. Religious-family homeschoolers are the most likely to have high school as their highest credential, but they are also the most likely to earn a PhD or advanced professional degree.

Graduates are highly satisfied with the independent schools they attended. Even with 15 or so years of hindsight, independent school graduates evaluate their school cultures positively, claiming them to be close knit and expressing a high regard for teachers, students, and administrators. They reflect that their independent school offered good preparation for post-secondary education as well as for later life.

Stronger families: Graduates of independent schools are less likely to be divorced or separated. This is particularly important for the future of education in Alberta, as children from intact homes perform significantly better in school, regardless of socioeconomic background (Jeynes 2015). 

Why Parents Choose Independent Schools 

Based on representative surveys of independent school parents in Alberta, BC, and Ontario, we derive the following conclusions (Hunt and Van Pelt forthcoming; Hunt and Van Pelt 2019; Van Pelt, Hunt, and Wolfert 2019):

• The variety of reasons parents choose their independent school are seemingly endless and reflect the diversity of parents choosing them. 
• Yet, the top two reasons are identical in the three provinces for which we have representative data. Parents choose their independent school because they believe:

1. This school offers a supportive, nurturing environment for students.
2. This is a safe school. 

• In Alberta specifically, the following wrap up the top five reasons for choosing an independent school:

3. This school supports our family’s values.
4. We trust the curriculum at this school.
5. This school teaches right from wrong. 

• Perhaps most importantly, 83.5 percent of Alberta-independent school parents are very likely to recommend their school.

Learning from Europe: Educational Pluralism is the Norm 

It is valuable to reflect on Alberta education in a global context. Diverse learning and educational pluralism are the democratic norm around the world, and for good reason. Using PISA data, the OECD (2017) finds: 

• In the advanced countries where non-government-managed schools receive greater proportions of taxpayer funding, the socio-economic disparities between students at government and nongovernment schools subsides proportionately. A robust and pluralist educational system in which taxpayer-funded independent schools are present is a driver of economic equality. 
• In other words, when there is a greater quantity and variety of fully taxpayer-funded non-government-managed K–12 education options, the differences between advantaged and disadvantaged populations narrows. 
• Europe has many examples of this, including countries such as the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and the Slovak Republic that are considered highly progressive. Over 90 percent of their “private” school funding comes from taxpayers, and these schools are not only highly heterogenous—in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, and family background—but the difference in socio-economic profiles between them and government-run schools is practically nonexistent. 
• The difference in socio-economic profiles is increasingly pronounced in OECD nations with less taxpayer funding for non-government schools, such as Belgium, Slovenia, Spain, and Poland. 
• True to this relationship, in Mexico, where non-government schools receive less than 1 percent taxpayer funding, socio-economic disparities between school sectors is extreme.

The Netherlands is probably the best example for summarizing the aforementioned findings. There, schooling is primarily a function of civil society rather than of the state, even though non-government schools are nearly fully funded (Casagrande, Pennings, and Sikkink 2019). Educational pluralism is the unchallenged norm, and Dutch students are not only high performers, they are also some of the world’s happiest (OECD 2017b; World Health Organization 2017; World Health Organization 2012; UNICEF 2013). 

In summary, despite myths that non-government schooling threatens civic formation, independent schools—and religious independent schools, in particular—form thoughtful graduates who are civically minded, committed to personal growth, and contributors to the public good. An educational system in which independent schools and robust parental choice are structurally embedded in government policy is a key tool for the reduction of inequality. 

Part 2: Policies for a Robust Pluralistic Educational Ecosystem 

Given the evidence, how might the Alberta government make more space for graduates of this sort to emerge, and for increased diversity in the Alberta education system? This section provides a suite of recommended incremental, non-disruptive policy options, as well as strategic reasoning and rhetoric for forward-facing communications. 

Removing Barriers to Enrolment 

Despite open enrolment, school choices for many Alberta families—in particular, those on the lower end of the income spectrum—are very practically limited to their postal code. The following can be done to remedy this and remove barriers to independent school enrolment: 

• Offer a mobility benefit to low-income families to help alleviate transportation costs and ensure such costs do not stand in the way of families’ ability to choose an independent school. These types of benefits would be particularly important for rural families that might have to travel long distances for their children to attend an independent school. 
• Target additional financial resources to expanding independent school options for special-needs students. In 2018/2019, we identified 17 schools as offering grade 1–12 education to students with special needs. However, all but one of these schools were located in Edmonton or Calgary. Thus, many children with special needs throughout the province do not necessarily have access to high-quality education that also ensures their needs are addressed in the best possible manner (Van Pelt 2018).

Removing Barriers to School Start-ups and Expansions 

The straightforward and enabling language of the School Act has been hijacked by the byzantine Private Schools Regulation. The latter should be refined to be an enabling, rather than a restrictive, policy tool. Regulation should aim at the original intent of the School Act—to empower schools to innovate, flourish, and expand. This should include but not be limited to: 

• Streamlining the process for establishing a new independent school, by requiring simply what is legislated in the School Act. The current onerous process is reducing the supply of much-needed independent schools. 
• Similarly, streamlining the process for expanding an existing independent school. Presently, both adding another physical location and altering programming (e.g., expanding from K–9 to include new programs for grades 10–12) are treated as new school approvals. This stifles the ability of independent schools to expand and innovate, placing further downward pressure on how many students independent schools can enrol. 
• Creating financial certainty for budgeting, by offering independent schools approval over a five-year period, thereby guaranteeing their status and funding in the near future. This is important for facilitating sustainable growth. The current yearly approvals that independent schools are subject to, along with the ever-changing budget allocations they face, creates great uncertainty and makes it extraordinarily difficult for independent school boards and administrations to plan—let alone grow.

Implementing the above will result in an increased supply of independent schools and independent school enrolment. For context, since 2016, at least 24 applications have been submitted for launching new accredited independent schools in Alberta, and as of June 2019, only seven had been approved. By comparison, 261 new independent schools have opened in Ontario since 2016. 

Ensuring Balanced Treatment of Education Reforms 

In other jurisdictions, charter school growth has been a direct substitute for independent school growth, as government policy has favoured charters over independents. Similarly, Alberta’s Alternative Education Program has been detrimental to Alberta’s independent school sector. Clearly agreed upon terms between schools and school boards have not always been honoured, and in many ways the alternative program has had a crowding-out effect in expanding the government school sector at the expense of the vibrancy of the independent school sector. Ensuring that the government structure its educational system with a sound mix of government schools (whether charter or otherwise), and independent schools, will reduce the fragility of its educational system, and build structural resilience. Accordingly, 

1. In school reform discussions, any changes to the charter legislation should be balanced with equally beneficial reforms for the independent school sector.
2. The government should re-evaluate the Alternative Program in Alberta, with the possibility of integrating alternative schools into the non-government sector. 
3. Alberta should also consider other models to facilitate the creation of culturally sensitive oversight of the independent school sector within the Ministry of Education. For example, in neighbouring BC, independent school inspectors are often former independent school principals. Not only does their first-hand sector knowledge help them monitor more effectively, but they are also sensitive to school-level cultural nuances that an inspector from outside the sector is not. Similarly, BC’s bureaucratic structure houses an independent school’s division within the Ministry of Education, with a commissioner of independent schools, which improves efficiency and helps ensure a consistency and expertise in oversight for accreditation and monitoring. 
4. Alberta should ensure that regulation respects the autonomy and integrity of the independent school sector. Regulatory oversight should ensure that a robust pluralism that recognizes the independent character of schools is seen as a public good. The goal is not only to increase the supply of or access to independent options, but to preserve their ability to remain robust in their missions and offer distinct choices, within the broader public system (Glenn 2000).

Embracing Imagination in Clarifying Language 

• Government schools: “Public schooling” is not the same thing as “public education.” All K–12 education is public education, as it is (1) compulsory, (2) taxpayer funded, (3) regulated by and accountable to the Ministry, and (4) for society’s good. Within public education, there are two types of schools: government and non-government. Accordingly, the former should be called just that: “government” schools, not “public” schools.
• Independent schools: Very few independent schools are bastions of privilege, but this misinformed stereotype is the image “private school” invokes. Both the connotation and actual term, “private,” are inaccurate. Nothing is private about Alberta’s independent schools. There are at least two additional reasons to the three aforementioned:

1. Alberta independent schools may have selection criteria, but they are not socially exclusive. Preliminary data from our active survey, Who Chooses Alberta Independent Schools and Why, indicates the overwhelming majority of Alberta parents find it easy to discover (78%) and enrol (91%) in their preferred independent school. (These percentage points are identical to our Ontario findings, based on a representative sample.) And even religious independent schools welcome non-religious students (Hunt and Van Pelt forthcoming). 
2. Decades of research, most notably the six CES data sets1 , show that independent school (and homeschool) graduates are consistently and significantly more active in their local community and a wide variety of civic activities—volunteering, charitable giving, voting, visiting the local library, and more. The most public, least privatized Albertans are independent school students, parents, and graduates.

For Further Consideration 

If the Alberta government is open to more significant change in addressing low-income families’ inability to afford independent school tuition, the Alberta government can introduce a corporate-sector tax credit to fund independent school scholarship programs for socioeconomically disadvantaged students—eliminating the financial barrier to enrolment. By allowing businesses (and individual donors and couples) to make dollar-for-dollar tax-deductible contributions to independently operated, nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations, students currently without access to independent schools can gain access without any additional taxpayer burden. Where similar programs have been tried, they yield $1.44 in private funding for every dollar of forgone corporate income-tax revenue. 

Conclusion 

It is critical to have a robust education ecosystem of diverse delivery systems. And, in particular, greater emphasis should be placed on expanding the number of and enrolment at independent schools in Alberta. Not only do they produce graduates who are more civically minded and committed to personal growth and contributing to the public good, but both independent school graduates and parents of current students are overwhelmingly likely to recommend their independent school. On average, they are highly satisfied with their independent school experience. More Albertans should have the opportunity to share in this positive experience. 

This can happen by removing barriers to school start-ups and expansions, and removing barriers to enrolment. Specifically, the number of independent schools can be increased by streamlining the processes for (1) establishing a new independent school and (2) expanding an existing school (whether by adding a new location or altering programming), as well as (3) extending yearly approvals to five years, to allow schools to plan and budget with certainty. Likewise, independent school enrolment will increase with (1) mobility benefits for low-income students (particularly in rural communities), and (2) targeting additional financial resources to expanding independent school options for special-needs students.