Brief on Bill 45 – The Responsible Choices for Growth and Accountability Act

A Submission on Tax Credit for Private School Tuition

ETFO is opposed to using public funds for private schools. This is a major policy shift that is not supported by the public. Private schools have private rules. Our public investment should be directed to improving public education, available to all children in Ontario.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario represents more than 65,000 members teaching and working in over 2500 public elementary schools. ETFO is committed to advancing the cause of education in Ontario to ensure a high quality public education accessible to all students. We are opposed to using public funds or tax credits for private schools. This policy was passed at the first Annual Meeting of ETFO.

This government’s attacks on the public education system in Ontario have been unrelenting. This private school tuition tax credit is clearly designed to destabilize public education and pave the way for significant expansion of private education in Ontario.

This is a clear reversal of this government’s and Premier Harris’s personal claim that private schools would not be supported. Just over a month ago, Premier Harris stated that the government had no plan to introduce vouchers for private schools. To argue that the tax credit is not a voucher is a deceitful claim and an insult to the intelligence of Ontario voters. This government has no mandate to make such a fundamental shift in public policy.

Given that this is a major shift in policy direction, we are concerned that there is limited opportunity for Ontario citizens to express their opinions about this proposal. To include it in the legislation enacting other measures from the provincial budget ensures that it will not get a full and proper hearing.

There is not public support for this shift in policy. The 13th OISE Survey of Educational Issues, released on May 7, 2001, reported that only 26% of Ontarians are in favour of extending public funding to other religious or private schools. This is confirmed in two polls conducted since the budget announcement.

The Ontario program will apply to all students in private schools, with current enrolment of over 100,000, about 5% of enrolment in our province. Fewer than 12,000 students in the U.S. are supported in private schools through public vouchers, in three jurisdictions – Milwaukee, Cleveland and Florida. That is less than 0.03% of the public school enrolments. Some US jurisdictions have overwhelmingly voted against propositions on vouchers, while legislation introduced in other states has not passed.

We do not deny that parents have the right to send their children to private schools. However, public money should not be used to fund private choices. The public education system was established to ensure all children were provided with quality education free of charge. This is one of the foundations of our modern democratic society.

Private schools have private rules. They are not required to accept all students who apply. Private schools are not required to provide information on student achievement, programs or enrolments. Barbara Miner, managing editor of Rethinking Schools, has stated “Private schools, like private roads, private beaches and private country clubs, don’t have to be accountable to the public. They also get to keep out those they don’t want.” Private schools in Ontario are exempt from sections of Part I of the Human Rights Code which ensures freedom from discrimination.

Private schools in Ontario do not have to hire qualified teachers, they do not have to follow the Ontario curriculum, they do not have to use the provincial report card, and they do not have to administer the provincial standardized tests.

Some other provinces provide funding to private schools – not to parents. B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec – mostly with conditions that schools must meet. For example, in B.C., all teachers must be certified for a school to qualify for any funding and the school must be operated by a non-profit authority.

An OECD study of choice programs, including vouchers and charter schools, in a number of countries found that not all parents were able to exercise choice equally. Parents who did exercise choice were better educated and relatively well off. This study concluded:

In practice, though, the main impact of choice has been on things other than school effectiveness. Choice potentially makes it hard to pursue certain kinds of system-wide education policies. … There is strong evidence in a number of countries that choice can increase social segregation. Sometimes this is because more privileged groups are more active in choosing “desired” schools. Sometimes it is because such schools are in more prosperous neighbourhoods, whose residents continue to get privileged access to them once they are full.

The fundamental question about the tax credit is whether tax dollars should be used to support private schools. In Ontario, we have a strong commitment to public education. Our public investment should be directed to improving this system.

The government is trying to mislead the public claiming that it is putting more money into education. This year’s allocation does not even cover the current costs of inflation and increasing enrolment. Since 1995, adjusting for inflation and enrolment, over $2 billion has been cut annually from the publicly funded

education systems in Ontario – over $1000 per student. Cumulatively, this amounts to almost $10 billion. This has had a dramatic impact. In the public elementary schools, we have experienced:

• a loss of special education programs;
• a loss of library programs;
• a loss of music, design and technology, ESL and family studies programs;
• a cut in field trips with parents having to pay more of the costs;
• insufficient textbooks and other learning materials for students and insufficient resource materials for teachers;
• closing of schools – for no other reason than a funding formula designed to remove money from the system to pay for tax cuts;
• class sizes that are too high for effective learning.

To then take at least $300 million from public finances to give to parents for private school tuition is objectionable. This money should be used to improve the public education system. $300 million could reduce class sizes in the primary grades to 21, the same average class size as in secondary. It could start to put books back in the libraries and programs back for students.

When fully implemented, this latest move will encourage more parents to remove their children from the public education system – for a variety of reasons, including getting away from the damage being done by the Harris education policies. For every student that leaves the public system, the government will save money – up to $3500. And this, we think, is the government’s real agenda – saving money.

Our public schools are more than institutions for the current students and parents. They provide the foundation for a democratic and prosperous society – for all citizens.

One of the main reasons that parents choose private schools is to ensure lower class sizes for their children. Parents should be able to rely on the public education system to provide the high quality education that they want and deserve for their children.

Our public schools give students from our multicultural society a place to feel welcome, to feel they are an important part of their community. They teach and practice equity.

We do not want a two-tier education system. We want a strong, high quality public education system accessible to all – to our children, to our grandchildren, to our neighbours children.

We call on this committee to recommend that the education tax credit provision of Bill 45 be removed. That would be a responsible choice.

Brief on Bill 45 - PDF version (30.3 KB)