Seven years ago, a third of Saskatchewan’s independent schools received some level of funding but eligibility for funding was restricted and not open to all independent schools. That changed when late in 2011 a new category was announced: Qualified Independent Schools. A recent Cardus study analyzed the ministry enrolment and school data (for 2011-12 to 2017-18) to see what happened next.
It turns out that in the first year (2012-13), about half of the unfunded independent schools in Saskatchewan became Qualified Independent schools (thus qualifying to receive funding at 50 percent of the per-pupil amount allotted for public school students). In all subsequent years the number of qualified independent schools remained virtually the same.
Enrolments in QIS increased by 37 percent from 2012-13 to 2017-18 but the numbers are small, increasing over the period from 608 to 834 enrolled students. In fact, the entire independent school sector in Saskatchewan enrols less than 2.5 percent of all students.
So, does offering funding for independent schools cause widespread disruption and mass exodus from government schools? Not necessarily, and certainly not in the case of Saskatchewan. What did result was expansion of options for families, more innovation and experiments in approaches to education, improved parental satisfaction, improvement in contact and relationships between independent schools and ministry of education, and perhaps just a straight-forward, one-time correcting of pent-up demand.
Are there lessons here for Ontario and the Atlantic provinces, for the provinces where no funding is currently offered for independent schools? See the report Qualified Independent Schools in Saskatchewan: An Examination of a Recent Policy Change for a New Category of Funded Independent Schools for more details and analysis.