Lacking funds, more and more public schools and especially school service centers are turning to philanthropy to raise more money to meet their needs.
A researcher from the Institute for Socioeconomic Research and Information (IRIS), who was looking into the unequal nature of philanthropy in the education sector, was surprised to find that the public network is turning to this new source of funding.
“I was surprised to see […] “Public schools are setting up foundations, charitable organizations, and I was surprised to see the number and to see the growth and I was also surprised to see that there were several private schools that had more than one charitable organization,” said Eve-Lyne Couturier, author of the study, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Unequal Philanthropy
The researcher’s goal was to demonstrate that students in the private sector benefit more – and by far – from philanthropy than their counterparts in the public sector. Thus, unsurprisingly, we learn that private and denominational schools have monopolized 92% of donations made in the Quebec school system, or $65.1 million, compared to the $5.7 million collected by public schools.
IRIS, a left-wing think tank, is not new to publishing to challenge the existence of a private school network that runs parallel to the public network while being largely subsidized by the state. Ms. Couturier’s study adds to the argument by pointing out the fact that not only do private school clients come from wealthier families who can afford the tuition fees charged to parents for these schools, but also that charitable donations, also generally made by wealthier taxpayers, allow them to seek tax credits for charitable donations.
It summarily estimates that the tax credits obtained for the $65 million in donations to private schools amount to between a minimum of $22 million and a maximum of $36 million. The imprecision of this amount is attributable to the fact that the value of the tax credit varies according to the amount of the donation and that it would have been necessary to analyze the value of each individual donation to have an exact amount.
Taxpayers pay twice
In any case, she argues, all taxpayers end up paying twice for private schools, first through direct government funding and then through the loss of $22 million to $36 million in revenue in tax credits for charitable donations. According to data from the 2023-2024 edition of the “Guide général du financement, Éducation prépréférien et enseignement primaire et secondaire” from the Ministry of Education, Quebec funded the private school system to the tune of $786.4 million, while the parents of the children who attend them paid $481.3 million in tuition fees. According to the same document, the private sector receives 4.4% of the Ministry of Education’s total budget.
On the public side, only 8% of schools have a foundation or other type of charity to seek donations. The situation is quite different for school service centres, half of which, or 30 out of 61, have formed a registered charity for tax purposes, according to audits by The Canadian Press. In general, they receive funding from the Ministry of Education through the charity they have set up.
However, Ms. Couturier points out, “a school service center is not a charitable organization, it is a parapublic organization.”
An absurdity
“In a system where we don’t have money, we look for money where we can and it can come through philanthropy, but that shouldn’t be the case,” says the researcher. “If we have a general public school that is valued, perhaps we would be more inclined to finance the school through donations, but it would be better to finance these schools through taxes.
“It’s supposed to be a universal and free system. There’s something absurd about having philanthropic funding on a universal system,” she argues.
It is interesting to note that the Ministry’s “General Financing Guide” makes no mention of donations in the sources of funding for public schools, whereas it does for sources of funding for the private network.
As for philanthropy in the private education system, Ms. Couturier sees an obvious contradiction. “There are people who fund a parallel education system while our public system is falling into ruins. There are significant needs. Charitable donations should contribute to equal opportunities and not to increasing inequalities.”
She acknowledges, however, that her study was not aimed at finding a solution to rebalance things, but that “it was rather about looking at the state of the situation and illustrating an unequal system.”
“If we wanted to change things, we would definitely have to review the structure of our education system,” she concludes.