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Should Ontario adopt the Swedish school funding model?


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......The Southern Public schools became a place for the Negro Population and the Private Schools for the whites with a handful of Negro's so as to not look totally racist.

In Ontario? How interesting. If you mean the USA, this is poppycock.

Edited by bush_cheney2004
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I saw nothing in the article stating that private schools are obligated to participate in the voucher programme though; so I guess any school that disagrees with the rules would be free to opt out, and any parent willing to choose not to use their voucher woudl be free to pay out of pocket. I'd see no problem with that. Though I suppose some already established private elite schools might feel a little threatened by this new model, as it would force them into having to decide whether to stay as is or conform to the rules of the voucher programme, and as we know, change can be scary.

It isn't clear ...

Like the Conservatives' proposals in England, the Swedish voucher cannot be "topped up". In other words, any private school participating in the scheme cannot charge any additional fees.

Nor can the private schools select pupils on any basis other than first-come-first-served.

Before vouchers there were virtually no private schools in Sweden. Now there are almost 800. They educate around 6% of all pupils.

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There's a big problem, not all school areas are the same and don't offer the same courses as a big board as Toronto. How many school have their own swimming pools, offer course to teach working in a restaurants etc. Only the large cities and board offer this and the small boards just offer basics. Would this mean a parent who wanted a better education for the children but lives in N. Ontario have to send them down to Toronto to get it? I'm only talking about public and high school years. Not all children of Ontario are offered the same opportunites as the bigger cities.

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It isn't clear ...

Like the Conservatives' proposals in England, the Swedish voucher cannot be "topped up". In other words, any private school participating in the scheme cannot charge any additional fees.

Nor can the private schools select pupils on any basis other than first-come-first-served.

Before vouchers there were virtually no private schools in Sweden. Now there are almost 800. They educate around 6% of all pupils.

That's true. But I think regardless of the situation in Sweden, it would be easy enough if we were to implement it in Ontario, to require all public schools to participate in the voucher programme while granting private schools the option. One possibility could be that a private school would have to apply to participate in the voucher programme. This would mean that if it's not interested, it would be free to just ignore it and carry on as usual.

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There's a big problem, not all school areas are the same and don't offer the same courses as a big board as Toronto. How many school have their own swimming pools, offer course to teach working in a restaurants etc. Only the large cities and board offer this and the small boards just offer basics. Would this mean a parent who wanted a better education for the children but lives in N. Ontario have to send them down to Toronto to get it? I'm only talking about public and high school years. Not all children of Ontario are offered the same opportunites as the bigger cities.

Granted in some areas the voucer programme would offer no advantage to parents, mainly in more isolated rural areas. For those parents, it would be nothing more than an administrative change. For those in high-density areas, it would be of benefit. Looking at it that way, some would benefit, and none would suffer. So I don't see how this could be an issue.

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Mention was made above of paying for transport. On that front, I'd definitely put a cap on spending on transport to school, as spending for this could get out of hand, especially if parents start deciding to send their child to some school at the other end of town for some religious or other reason. THis could cause costs to skyrocket. Also, seeing that many Canadian cities are suffering from suburban sprawl as is, do we really want to subsidize such sprawl even more?

If we should place a cap on the amount of money the school could spend on transport, then we would be forcing parents to either pay for transport out of pocket if they live too far from the school, or they'd have to move closer to the school. One other alternative would be to register the child at a school near the parent's place of work, so that they could both travcel together. This would pressure parents to take responsibility for urban infrastructural efficiency.

I'm in favour fo a green tax shift too by the way.

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Mention was made above of paying for transport. On that front, I'd definitely put a cap on spending on transport to school, as spending for this could get out of hand, especially if parents start deciding to send their child to some school at the other end of town for some religious or other reason. THis could cause costs to skyrocket. Also, seeing that many Canadian cities are suffering from suburban sprawl as is, do we really want to subsidize such sprawl even more?

If we should place a cap on the amount of money the school could spend on transport, then we would be forcing parents to either pay for transport out of pocket if they live too far from the school, or they'd have to move closer to the school. One other alternative would be to register the child at a school near the parent's place of work, so that they could both travcel together. This would pressure parents to take responsibility for urban infrastructural efficiency.

I'm in favour fo a green tax shift too by the way.

It doesn't matter how far you go - bus pass costs the same.

There aren't many benefits of this system for rural areas, though, as pointed out.

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It doesn't matter how far you go - bus pass costs the same.

That would still fit in with the principle of capping how much the school can spend on transport. If it can do it using public transport or some other relatively inexpensive means of trasport, then good for them.

There aren't many benefits of this system for rural areas, though, as pointed out.

Lack of benefit does not eqaul harm though. While this would benefit urban centres, it would not hurt rural centres (all they'd notice is a change of administrative procedures). So if it benefits one group but doesn't hurt others, so be it. If the government should introduce laws that benefit rural communities but neither benefit nor hurt urban communties, I'm sure most urbanites woudl support it too.

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That would still fit in with the principle of capping how much the school can spend on transport. If it can do it using public transport or some other relatively inexpensive means of trasport, then good for them.

Lack of benefit does not eqaul harm though. While this would benefit urban centres, it would not hurt rural centres (all they'd notice is a change of administrative procedures). So if it benefits one group but doesn't hurt others, so be it. If the government should introduce laws that benefit rural communities but neither benefit nor hurt urban communties, I'm sure most urbanites woudl support it too.

Rural students would not have as much choice of schools, perhaps none, so it would hurt them.

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Rural students would not have as much choice of schools, perhaps none, so it would hurt them.

Seeing that it would not diminish their choice of schools any more than what they have now, it would not hurt them. Let's say that converting to a voucher system gave them no more choice than they have now, which would be the only local school in town, then nothing would change for them other than the application process and their children would just keep going to the same school. Yet even they may benefit indirectly because children living more or less half way between two schools in two nearby towns would have choice, and so the school that wants their business would have to work harder to improve its service, and that would benefit all the other kids who don't have a choice. So all woudl still benefit indirectly or, at worse, some might not benefit but still not lose. No one loses here but maybe some teachers.

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Rural students would not have as much choice of schools, perhaps none, so it would hurt them.

Seeing that it would not diminish their choice of schools any more than what they have now, it would not hurt them. Let's say that converting to a voucher system gave them no more choice than they have now, which would be the only local school in town, then nothing would change for them other than the application process and their children would just keep going to the same school. Yet even they may benefit indirectly because children living more or less half way between two schools in two nearby towns would have choice, and so the school that wants their business would have to work harder to improve its service, and that would benefit all the other kids who don't have a choice. So all woudl still benefit indirectly or, at worse, some might not benefit but still not lose. No one loses here but maybe some teachers.

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