Let my people go

SQE board member Marni Soupcoff had an op/ed in the National Post yesterday in which she pointed out that the new federal child care benefit puts money in the hands of parents to spend however they like. Marni then goes on to point out that there's no reason why the same approach couldn't be used for schooling as well, to wit:

"There’s a far simpler approach that bypasses the necessity of centrally planning province-wide education systems that will work for all the hundreds of thousands of different circumstances, needs and desires of the kids and families involved: give parents a $12,000 voucher (or whatever the current per child spending amount on education is in a given province) and let them use it at the school of their choice."

It's worth pointing out that this is the approach that is taken for daycare and post-secondary education - parents and students are allowed to choose programs on the basis of what works best for their individual circumstances, as opposed to being assigned to programs on the basis of administrative convenience. And if parents and students are capable of making responsible decisions in the years before and after elementary and secondary schooling, then surely they are capable of making responsible decisions when it comes to their children's elementary and secondary education.

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