BC’s $40 A Day Payout To Parents During The Teacher Strike Is The Start Of The Education Savings Account (ESA) Idea In Canada
Practically all Western Democracies follow the principle that it is the parents who are ultimately responsible for their child’s education. Government schools are there as back-up for parents — part of the safety net of a welfare state. Check the School Acts. It is parents who are to register their child into a public school unless they have made other plans, for example, independent school or home education.
Citizens generally support public education through their taxes and expect the government to distribute that dedicated money for the education of a targeted population of young children and youth. For the government to actually produce that education lays it open to debate as to whether this amounts to indoctrination. To operate a near monopoly service using government workers (public school teachers) is what has evolved over the years and is rarely challenged. It should be!
Thus it was with great surprise that the Minister of Finance in BC, Mike de Jong, announced the notion of a $40 day payout to parents whose children in the primary years would be deprived of their government school of choice during a teacher strike. The strike is now over and thousands of parents will receive $560 per qualified child. The Finance Minister at that time enjoined parents to acquire “tutoring . . . other educational opportunities . . . [or] basic daycare.”
It was an article of faith and trust in parents that they would do the right thing in the event the strike would last a long time.
This, in effect, amounts to the first Education Savings Account idea in Canada.
- Parents will receive the money. No one in any official capacity opposed this idea despite a great deal of grumbling from some quarters who felt this was “education money” and should go either to teachers or to “the system”.
- It is the Finance Minister who is to supervise the distribution of this education money to the qualifying parents, not the Minister of Education. This is significant.
- This is “devolution” in practice. Central government is not determining how the money is to be spent and we have yet to see how many educational efforts were mounted in the 14-day period.
- Innovation, flexibility and discovery of resources never before tapped came to the fore. Who is to say that horseback riding is not an educational accomplishment? Tutoring outfits were overwhelmed with demand for basics in math and reading.
Now, we just need to build on this idea and expand the principle and practice.
Watch this video about Arizona’s ESAs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPEkK5nfu3Y