VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – BC’s education system has caught the eyes of analysts in Ontario, as that province deals with ongoing debt.
Our structure for financing education is cheaper than Ontario’s and student achievement scores are higher, according to The Fraser Institute, a right-wing think tank.
Deani Van Pelt with the Fraser Institute points out we finance an English stream and a French stream. But Ontario also has English-Catholic and French-Catholic, meaning that province is fully funding four streams of public schooling.
She says Ontario could save up to $1.9 billion a year by forcing those schools to find independent funding. “Not only is [BC’s] cheaper than Ontario’s, but you also are achieving higher student achievement scores than we are in Ontario.”
“In British Columbia, religious alternatives, including catholic schooling, are funded, partially not fully, through independent school funding. In Ontario, we have no independent school funding,” she notes.
Van Pelt adds Ontario’s government is deeply in debt, due in part to such high education costs.