Toronto Sun – September 9 2018 – Deani VanPelt – “Every year, a smaller share of Ontario students heads back to their locally-assigned public or Catholic separate school and more and more students head off to an independent school. Not only are independent school enrolments growing, the growth in the number of independent schools in Ontario is astounding.
“This year, about 140,000 students in Ontario will take their seat in one of almost 1,300 non-government schools. About half of these schools have a religious orientation, including Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Sikh schools, a third offer a unique educational approach such as Montessori, Waldorf, or classical. About 5% are what might be considered traditional elite private schools.”
“The latest available data (2015-16) show public school enrolments dropped by 6%, while enrolments in independent schools increased by 12% over the previous decade.”
“as the time come for Ontario to stop isolating itself from the rest of the country and learn from all the large provinces about best practices when it comes to funding independent schools? From British Columbia to Manitoba and Quebec, independent schools receive from 35% to 80% of the per-student allotment for neighbourhood public schools.”
