The Good Ship Ontario Education

A recent report would have us believe the system is charting a smooth course. So why are parents deserting it?

Ontario public education officialdom continues to inhabit a world resembling the mythical “never-never land.” Every year for the past 17 years, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) has produced a survey called, “Public Attitudes Towards Education.” It’s the pet research project of OISE professors Doug Hart and David Livingston, two unabashed cheerleaders for the public school system. It’s also just the kind of report that gives “educational research” such a bad name.

Judging from the 2009 OISE survey report, the Ontario system is truly in fine shape. Public attitudes toward education are “markedly improved” since those “years of discord” in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Satisfaction with schools is at record levels,” report Hart and Livingston, now that “over 60 per cent are somewhat or very satisfied with the school system.” The principal researchers are greatly encouraged by the fact that 51 per cent of the public now “award Ontario schools an A or B grade for their work.” When Catholic parents are included, the approval rating soars to 57 per cent of respondents.

The Annual OISE Survey was the first example of questionable “education research” that came to mind after reading a recent critical review of the whole field in Educational Leadership. After poring over the 2009 survey results, I certainly wondered how they ever reached those rosy conclusions.

Viewed from a more objective, independent lens, all is not completely well in Ontario education land. From 2002-03 to 2009-10, the Ontario Ministry of Education poured billions more into the system. Public funding has grown from $14.4 billion to $19.5 billion, a 36 per cent increase in dollars. Yet – based upon the OISE Survey – 38 per cent of the public still award the schools a “C grade or less,” and 10 per cent have no stated opinion. Such results can only be cold comfort to academics paid to uphold the system.

Since the OISE Survey lacks real credibility, where might we look for a more reliable assessment of Ontario public education? On that matter, Ontario’s Society for Quality Education (SQE) is dead on in pointing out that Ontario student enrolment trends might be a good place to start. In late May 2010, Malkin Dare, editor of School For Thought, SQE’s splendid little blog, posted a memorable piece, mischievously entitled ”Rats Deserting a Sinking Ship?” In the post, she cites new research addressing a fundamental problem: increasing numbers of parents are choosing alternatives to the public system.

The actual figures are quite startling. In spite of greatly increased public funding, and contrary to the OISE “research” findings, enrolment in publicly-funded Ontario schools has been dropping (from not quite two billion in 2002-03 to just over 1.9 billion in 2009-10 – about a five per cent decrease). At the same time, enrolment in privately-funded Ontario schools has been increasing (by about eight per cent between 2000 and 2005, the latest year for which figures are available).

If public satisfaction levels are so high, why are increasing numbers of families voting with their feet? A key factor may well be the official provincial policy of limiting parental choice and rationing access to private schools to only those who are able to afford such expensive options. That may well explain the Toronto Board of Education’s recent dalliance with broadening school choice.

The good ship Ontario Education may not be sinking, but it is taking on water. Perhaps it’s time, once again, to consider more “diversity” in the allocation of education funding.

Dr. Paul W. Bennett, Director of Schoolhouse Consulting, Halifax, is the author of The Grammar School (Formac Lorimer Books, 2009), and the online editor of Edublog at SchoolhouseConsulting.ca. He earned his Ed.D. at a fine institution: OISE!