The Flight of the Middle Class from Public Schools: A Canadian Mirage

Résumé

This article is a revised version of a paper I was asked to prepare for the International Scholars’ Breakfast held during the recent University Council for Educational Administration conference (Goddard, 2000). I was asked to provide a Canadian perspective on the flight of the middle class from the public school system. This I was happy to do.

As a self-confessed news junkie, I had been inundated with stories of burgeoning private schools, multitudes of charter alternatives, and the like. I was certain that this paper would provide me with the opportunity to deliver a clear exposé of the problems facing Canadian public schools as they struggle to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse public. As I began to research the topic further, however, I began to feel rather a fraud. In Canada, the flight of the middle class from the public to the private system is an issue worthy of Don Quixote. There is, in essence, no such issue. That is not to say that we do not have private schools in Canada, nor that there are not many vocal proponents of such schools. Rather, it appears that most Canadians would rather fix the current system than flee it for another.

In this article I first provide an overview of the governance of Canadian education. I then describe five versions of private education found across the country. Following a review of the enrolment of students outside the public system, I present a discussion of the alternate strategies used by Canadians in their quest to facilitate the educational success of their children. Although I have tried to draw my examples from across Canada, the governance of education in Canada is a provincial rather than a national affair. Thus, there is no certainty that laws or regulations similar to those of one province will be found in other provinces or territories. Because Alberta is the context with which I am most familiar, the majority of the examples cited here are drawn from that province.