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An idea whose time has yet to come
In a comment to Educhatter’s blog on teacher quality reform (one of 398 comments!), Sandy asks whether SQE has enough money to start a small private K-6 school in the hopes that the Ontario Conservatives will win the next election, enable charter schools, and allow our new school to convert to charter status.
I have often dreamed along these lines - you know, starting up a demonstration school that shows what’s possible. Apart from helping the limited number of students in the school, it could act as a lighthouse to other schools, inspiring them to excellence.
Before long, however, reality sets in.
In the first place, schools are ruinously expensive. What with start-up costs, salaries, furniture, books, rental, etc., etc., the first year of operation for a school of 200 students would easily run you $350,000. Even if you managed to earn $200,000 in tuition fees - and that’s a big if - you would still have to come up with $150,000. Trust me, SQE does not have this kind of money.
Next, let’s say the Conservatives win the next election - probable, but by no means certain. Assuming they win, there is no reason to believe they will enable charter schools. In fact, if I were a betting woman, I would give you odds of about 10 to 1 against. And even if I lost THAT bet, there would be no guarantee that the charter school legislation would allow existing private schools to convert to charter status. I would say that starting up a private school that will succeed only if it can soon become a charter school would be courting disaster.
Third, it’s really hard to create a good school. I think we could do it (although there is no guarantee), but it would take a huge amount of time and effort by a lot of very committed people. At this point in my life, I’m simply not willing.
But the final reason is the real killer. We all tend to think that a demonstration school which gets exemplary results, head and shoulders above existing schools, would serve as a wake-up call to the education establishment, encouraging other schools to find out how to do it themselves. But this demonstrably does not happen. I have written before about Ontario public schools that achieved excellence (St. Francis of Assissi in Stroud and Parkview Public School in Lindsay) - and they were quickly and savagely shut down by their school boards. The same thing has happened in many other places. The truth is - the education establishment hates and fears excellence, because it makes the other schools look bad. I am convinced that Ontario educators would have no interest in an exemplary private school, instead convincing themselves that the school was terrible in some way and publicly denigrating it - then carrying on with the status quo.
Other than that, starting a private school is a great idea, Sandy.