Public schools are often referred to as the cornerstone of healthy democracies, where children from all backgrounds have equitable opportunities to reach their potential and acquire the skills and knowledge to become engaged and productive citizens. That’s a good reason to publicly fund them and ensure they’re accessible to all.
But what happens when public funding is redirected to private schools, while public schools struggle to cover the costs of delivering quality education services and supports to all students?
Does it lead to increasingly polarized politics? Does an eroded public system open the doors to the misinformation and manipulation that undermines democracy? Does it exacerbate economic equality? Based on what we’ve seen play out over the last decade in the U.S., one could argue that the answer to these questions is “yes”—and that we’re seeing more of these outcomes in Canada in recent years.
Here in British Columbia, public funding for private schools has been growing steadily since the provincial government started subsidizing private (also referred to as independent) schools in 1977.
Under BC legislation passed in 1989, private schools receive either 50 percent of the per-student annual funding allocation to public schools (if they don’t spend more per student than neighbouring public schools), or 35 percent if they spend more than public schools).
It adds up. In BC this year, the public is directly subsidizing private schools to the tune of a staggering $570 million dollars in annual 39 operating grants, while public school boards struggle to balance their budgets. At the same time, BC now allocates less of its Gross Provincial Product (GPP) toward its public schools than any province except Newfoundland and Labrador, according to Statistics Canada. 1
According to that 2021 data, BC allocates just 3 percent of its GPP to K-12 education, while Manitoba allocates 4.9 percent, Nova Scotia 4.4 percent, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island 4.2 percent, Quebec 4.1 percent, New Brunswick 4 percent, Ontario 3.8 percent and Alberta 3.3 percent. This smaller percentage means BC school boards have less funding available for student support and to provide up-to-date, adequate and safe school buildings.
Consequently, in BC public school funding doesn’t keep pace with inflation and other increased costs, and private school enrolment is growing, with more of the province’s public funding being used to subsidize those private schools, further eroding public schools’ ability to meet the needs of all students. And it’s not just $570 million in direct funding to private schools, it’s an array of tax credits, “charitable” tax deductions and property-tax exemptions that divert money from the provincial treasury that could otherwise be invested in public schools.
A perverse sort of charity, for children of the wealthy
Public school trustees and administrators can only dream of the quality of education they could provide if they had the money to work with that schools like Vancouver’s elite, private school for boys, St. George’s School, has. It starts with the $34,000 annual tuition fee, which is generously subsidized with an additional $3,650 per year per student from BC taxpayers. That’s on top of the $6,479,200 the school’s charitable arm—The St. George’s School Foundation—received in the form of “gifts for which the charity issued tax receipts,” according to Canada Revenue Agency documents (in addition to another $1,345,406 in “gifts received for which a tax receipt was not issued by the charity,” also according to the CRA). 2
The generous tax-receipted gifts include direct donations to the St. George’s School Foundation “Annual Fund,” to which hundreds of families donate each year.
That’s a load of dough to be distributed among about 1,200 students, the children of some of BC’s wealthiest and most powerful people. Especially when they screen their students for academic ability, prioritizing those on track to attend prestigious post-secondary institutions, meaning those with complex (and expensive) learning needs may be excluded on the grounds of not being “a good fit.”
If it does accept students with special needs, the school may also claim 100 percent of the supplementary provincial grants available for public school students with special education designations, thanks to the former BC Liberal government’s legislation.
So not only are BC taxpayers directly subsidizing some of the most privileged students in the province, who have access to resources public schools can only dream of, its donors are getting tax deductions for millions in “charitable” donations to what strikes me as a perverse sort of charity of children of the rich, while public school boards are forced to cut staffing and programs to balance their increasingly inadequate budgets.
A generous deal for families who can afford over $40,000 a year in tuition
While K-12 education is a provincial responsibility, Vancouver taxpayers are on the hook for an especially sweet deal for a small private school on Vancouver’s west side.
It’s bad enough that so much money flows from the province to BC’s private schools, while the government invests less of its GPP on public schools than it has in decades, and wealthy parents can reduce their taxes by donating money on top of their hefty tuition fees.
To add insult to injury to public schools and the students who attend them, Vancouver’s city
council recently committed its taxpayers to a generous “in-kind’ gift of $31.85 million to the private Fraser Academy School, in the form of a ground-lease agreement giving them a site in one of the country’s most expensive postal codes, at an annual rent payment of one dollar a year, over 104 years.
That arrangement, combined with an exemption for the school from paying property taxes—a gift put into legislation by B.C.’s former provincial Liberal government (led by former Premier Christy Clark, who sent her own child to St. George’s School)—means generations of Vancouver taxpayers will be subsidizing a private school that charges north of $40,000 year in tuition, and boasts of class size averages of “up to 12 students,” while the city’s public school board has cut multiple programs and staff positions, and struggles to meet the needs of its diverse student population.
Public education is an investment we can’t afford to keep shortchanging
When we don’t meet the needs of children when they’re at school, we may pay for it later. Not graduating from high school is associated with a number of expensive social and economic outcomes, including unemployment and poverty.
We simply can’t afford to keep shortchanging our public schools. Public treasuries are stretched and education budgets are in competition with rising healthcare costs, in a system that is also struggling. We have aging public infrastructure that needs massive investment.
The increased diversion of precious, in-demand public funds to private education is undermining our public schools’ ability to meet the educational needs of students, and it needs to stop. This erosion threatens our democracy and leads to division and intolerance and increasing inequality. Public schools bring us together, while private schools divide us. By redirecting the direct and indirect public funding that is subsidizing private schools— that only few can afford—back to public schools, we can provide the level of education programming and support that some parents choose to pay for in the private system. Every single child deserves a quality education, not just those whose parents can pay tuition. It’s time to privatize private schools by making them fund themselves privately, without the public’s money. Let’s recommit to a quality public education system and stop putting the public’s money into private schools. We can’t afford not—to and our democracy depends on it.
The Institute for Public Education BC is an independent nonpartisan society providing high quality information and leadership to build a strong public education system for British Columbia’s children, families, and communities. IPE/BC offers analysis of current educational issues, supports public education, and shares current research findings to enrich dialogue on educational issues in British Columbia.
Notes
- Statistics Canada. Table 37-10-0211-01 Public and private expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP, by level of education DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/3710021101-eng
- Canada Revenue Agency. “St. George’s School Foundation—Quick View,” 2024. https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplyRprtngPrd?=0007&selectedCharityBn=119175511RR0001.
