Special Education and the Private/Public debate
We recently had a lively but respectful discussion on our email network on the public/private education debate as it relates to special education in particular, with a wide range of views. Here are my thoughts. Please add further comments covering anything I've missed, or let me know if we have permission to post your earlier comments shared via email:
Catching up on a very interesting debate...
To answer the original question about private/independent education (the distinction being really just branding because independent schools are becoming less so as they accept more govt funding and consider unionization, etc), I think we need to consider what is the whole point of having public schools in the first place.
If our forefathers thought the most important features of education were choice, flexibility and competition, they'd have chosen the competitive, elitist British model, as the US did. They didn't. They very consciously chose a different way - one that was intended to give each Canadian child an equal opportunity to achieve their unique individual potential, regardless of the circumstances of birth.