Today’s letters: Charter schools might be a better solution

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, like others, is cash-strapped these days. Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /POSTMEDIAArticle content

Let’s talk about charter schools

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The reporter writes that the per pupil funding received from Ontario is $13,834 per year. I did a really quick check to see the cost of a private school in Ottawa. At the low end, there are March Academy and Lycée Claudel.

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March Academy has a total of 32 students, Grades 1 to 8, 6 to 10 per class and multiple grades per class. Yearly tuition $16,000.

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Lycée Claudel is a much larger school at 980 students, 20-to-24 per class, primary school to Grade 12. Tuition is $15,000 to $16,000 per year. It boasts of 100 per cent university acceptance rate, 97 per cent for students’ first program choice.

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With the total cost per student being so close between public and private, why has there never been much talk about the charter school system? Charter schools are publicly funded but have a performance contract with the government. The Obama administration strongly supported them. Like any system, there are issues: charter schools and the separation of church and state is before the U.S. courts right now. That really isn’t an issue in Canada.

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The charter system has great potential that can be tailored to the primary focus of educating children. Our current system uses children as leverage to extract funding for education staffing. Not many would say that the current system works well or is improving. Do you really think that more money will fix the current problems?

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Publicly funded education is beneficial to society as we all reap the benefits. We need a focused system to give youth a well rounded education to start them on the path of a successful life.

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Ian Stewart, Ottawa

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Housing demand is already falling

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Politicians of all stripes are falling over themselves screaming for ramped-up housing starts. As usual, they all have it wrong. Sales numbers and prices are already down in Vancouver and Toronto. It is likely that, year over year, 100,000 fewer immigrants and 500,000 fewer foreign students has already quelled the housing demand.

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As an aside, I would like to see the immigration numbers and foreign student numbers back up to their highs. Both are good for our economy and then, sigh, our politicos would be right to push for housing starts.

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Mark Gauvin, Johnstown

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