The Plan for a common school network of École ensemble launched on May 9 has created a real “momentum” of discussions around the future of the Quebec education system. The many newspaper articles or radio programs that followed its release testify to this.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
This text aims to contribute to this collective discussion by providing elements that are little or not raised related to the issue of school markets, which should necessarily be considered in order to best achieve the social objectives of equal opportunities in the education system. Quebec and equal treatment within it.
With its plan, École ensemble aims in particular to tackle three mechanisms that contribute to the presence of school markets in Quebec, namely the possibility of choosing the school of one’s children, the selective nature of schools or their programs and the rights tuition required of parents to access certain schools or programs.
In the current state of the education system, these mechanisms are present in the public and private sector, although there are variations. The abolition of these mechanisms also aims to promote greater social diversity in schools, reduced in particular due to the logic of school markets. The École ensemble plan also suggests redrawing the school map in order to reduce the impact of the unequal distribution of individuals according to their social class between the districts of a city.
If implemented, these proposals could certainly contribute to making schools more socially mixed and to reducing the dynamics of school markets in Quebec. However, certain direct or indirect effects of the proposed plan must be put forward more, integrated into the collective reflection, in particular with a view to countering them, at least as much as possible.
Things to consider
First, the plan suggests that private establishments subsidized to the tune of 60% by public funds convert, if they wish, into contracted schools, that is to say 100% subsidized. Thus, they would become schools which will have a respective catchment area, delimited by the redesigned school map. Students will therefore be affiliated according to their place of residence. However, it must be considered that the quality of the infrastructures, material equipment, etc., of these approved schools, at least the great majority, diverges greatly from that of certain public schools, which would create a distinct treatment between the schools of the proposed common network. In order to limit the effects of this gap in the short term, or even to eliminate them in the medium or long term, a significant investment will have to be made in public schools, but especially in some considered to be more problematic.
Next, it should be assumed that parents, especially those with a university degree or from a privileged socioeconomic background, will try to establish strategies that will favor them in the “new rules of the game”, particularly residential strategies. Nor should it be surprising if they prefer certain particular paths to others. In short, an unofficial market (Felouzis, Maroy and van Zanten, 2013) could develop.
Market logics could be recreated in new forms, some of which may be more subtle, at least initially. It is therefore necessary to remain alert in order to observe and document the establishment of these phenomena.
Finally, we should point out that the plan does not make it possible to tackle the existing inequalities between the regions of Quebec, especially between the urban regions and the rural regions, in terms of equal opportunities in the education system and equal treatment in her bosom. Indeed, school markets are mainly present in the urban centers of Quebec. These inequalities between regions, about which we often speak too little, are nevertheless very much present. Will a student from a rural area be able to have access to similar specific paths, offering similar advantages, to a student living in an urban centre?
In view of these elements, it seems appropriate to incorporate them into the collective reflection on the changes to be made to the Québec education system, in particular to ensure that they are aligned as much as possible with the ideals of equity and social justice.