Same Arguments, Different Outcomes: Struggles Over Private School Funding in Alberta and Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT

I compare arguments mobilized for and against a policy to publicly fund private schools, including religious private schools, in Alberta and Ontario, Canada, and highlight how the arguments reflect each province’s historical, ideological, and social contexts. Grounded in Maarten Hajer’s argumentative discourse theory and based on findings from argumentative discourse analyses of 275 media articles, submissions to nine parliamentary committee meetings, and 14 interviews, I show how actors with disparate interests and values formed discourse coalitions as they pursued their policy preference by mobilizing one of two storylines: (1) public funds are for public schools or (2) private schools deserve public funds. The findings demonstrate that policy supporters and opponents mobilized the same arguments in both provinces between 1990 and 2020 with opposing outcomes. I conclude by highlighting aspects of the provinces’ historical, social, and discursive contexts that help explain these different outcomes and consider the effects of Alberta’s policy to fund private schools with public funds on enrollment and equity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author (s). This article draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes

¹ Notably, faith-based schools in the two provinces are not exclusively private. In fact, both Alberta and Ontario have always funded some Catholic and Protestant schools because of agreements made to protect education for existing religious minorities when Canada was formed in 1867. Today, Ontario has two, fully funded Catholic school systems (one English and one French) and Alberta has a publicly funded English Catholic school board and a francophone board with both secular and Catholic schools. In addition, some publicly funded English secular school boards in Alberta offer faith-based alternative programs.

² Discussions about debates over public funding of private schools in earlier decades in these provinces can be found elsewhere (Bergen, 1982; Farney & Banack, 2023; Hiemstra, 2005; McDermid & Winton, 2023; Mindzak, 2015; Shapiro, 1986; Wagner, 1999; Winton & Staples, 2022).

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Sue Winton

Sue Winton is York Research Chair in Policy Analysis for Democracy and Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her research examines policy advocacy, influences, and enactment. She is Director of the Public Education Exchange (PEX), an initiative to create and share knowledge about education privatization in Canada.