What’s the Deal with Public Funding for Private Schools?

A building at St. George’s School, an all-boys Vancouver independent school | Photo Credit: St. George’s School

In the 2022/23 school year, private schools, officially known as independent schools,  were granted $491 million in government funding, a $17 million increase over the 2021/22 school year. Making up roughly 7 per cent of BC’s total education budget, funding for independent schools has often been criticized. Adding to the scrutiny, only half the provinces in Canada fund these institutions.

Funding for independent schools is divided into multiple groupings, each having different requirements and funding amounts. The two most common groups are Group 1 and Group 2 schools, which make up the vast majority.

When most people think of independent schools, they think of “elite preparatory schools'' which are part of Group 2. However, Group 2 also includes specialized learning and Indigenous schools. Altogether, they make up roughly 22 per cent of independent schools, and less than 13 per cent of the independent schools’ budget for 2021, according to the Ministry of Education. 

Group 1 schools are the most prevalent type of independent school, making up 64 per cent. In general, Group 1 schools are religiously affiliated, although there are specialized schools such as Fraser Academy which focuses on helping dyslexic students. In order to be classified as a Group 1 independent school, the school must meet multiple requirements. First, according to the BC government, the school must be run by a non-profit authority which is fully up to date with their public records, and the teachers must be certified by the Teacher Regulation Branch. The school must also have at least half of its students be ‘eligible students’, meaning they are school age and their parents are citizens of BC. The most important factor is that the operational costs per-student must be the same or less than the cost-per-student of the local public school district. Any independent schools that exceed this per-student cost threshold while still satisfying all other criteria for Group 1 are then categorized into Group 2. 

It is through these groupings that funding is determined. Group 1 schools receive 50 per cent of the local public school amount per student, with Group 2 schools receiving only 35 per cent. It is important to note that this does not include some tax breaks such as property tax breaks that independent schools receive. 

Only four other provinces besides BC fund independent schools in some fashion, which has led many to call for a halt to the province’s funding. The BC Teachers’ Federation has been a vocal critic, saying that the government is “subsidizing private schools with public funds”. Repeated polls have shown a similar opposition to funding these schools, with a poll from BCHumanist showing roughly two-thirds of citizens are against it. The general argument for stopping the provincial funding often boils down to simply reclaiming the budget that is spent on independent schools and moving it to public projects. 

An alternative perspective on independent school funding is, as proposed by Mark Milke from the Fraser Institute, a right-leaning think tank, that the Ministry is getting a discount on all students at independent schools. Each student costs either 35 or 50 per cent of their cost in the public school system. An issue with this thinking, however, is that not all these students would automatically be back in public schools if funding was cut, although this still does lend support to the funding of independent schools.

While not a clear cut issue, independent school costs are much lower than most people initially expect.