In a Washington Times op-ed, Lance Izumi and Jason Clemens of the Pacific Research Institute explain why Canada’s education system is sweet.
Several Canadian provinces provide direct per-student grants, similar to vouchers, to private independent and religious schools. In British Columbia, the provincial government funds children attending eligible private independent schools through per-student grants to those schools, with the amount dependent on the operating costs of the receiving school. In Alberta, private independent and religious schools can receive per-student grants that are a percentage of the per-pupil funding for the public schools. In addition to empowering parents of all income levels, provinces with school-choice programs have seen higher student achievement.
According to a study by the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute, “achievement scores are not only higher generally in the provinces that fund independent schools, but also higher particularly among students from less advantaged backgrounds.” The study also found that in these provinces the competition fostered by the choice programs correlated with improved public schools and higher achievement by public-school students. The impact of Canadian decentralization and the country’s school-choice policies can also be seen in international testing comparisons.
On the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a system of tests measuring the performance of 15-year-olds in reading, math and science literacy, Canada bests the United States by a wide margin. In math, the U.S. scores 474, well below the international average of 498, and far below Canada’s 527. On the 2006 Progress in Reading Literacy Study exam, multiethnic British Columbia and the other pro-school-choice provinces of Alberta and Ontario all significantly outscored the U.S. in fourth-grade reading. The Canadian performance is more noteworthy given that the United States outspends Canada by about 20 percent per student in the latest available international statistics.
Izumi and Clemens do something that most school choice proponents fail to do – describe how common and effective school choice is around the world.