Read the Story A quarter century ago, England’s Labour Party and the nation’s Conservative Party worked together to introduce reforms that put students—not politics—first. Fast forward to today, and the results of England’s push towards school autonomy have been amazing: high student test scores while giving parents more choice. Meanwhile, with the exception of one province, Canada’s main political parties remain paralyzed from copying what worked in England. The result? A steady deterioration in student performance and 53 percent of Canadians believing the public school system has gone in the wrong direction over the past two decades. What Tony’s Blair’s Labour government did was take failing public schools and let non-profits run them. England’s Conservative Party supported the policy and expanded it by allowing non-profits to also start their own government-funded schools. In both cases, there’s no tuition to attend. The results have been especially positive for underprivileged children. The Michaela school in London is perhaps the best example. Located in a lower-income part of the city, the school represents a return to successful practices from the past: students actually face discipline if they misbehave, teachers guide classroom lessons and use proven teaching practices. Michaela actually has some of the highest test scores in the country, rivalling Eton, a private school where the royal family sends their children. While OECD research shows test scores in the developed world have fallen over the past couple decades, England is an outlier—theirs have largely stayed flat and are ranked in the top 10 in the world for reading, science and math. One reason is that England now has nearly 12,000 non-profit schools (funded by government). Many Albertans won’t be too surprised by this success story. Alberta students consistently earn the highest scores on average in Canada when it comes to education test scores, and Alberta also has non-profit schools that are funded by the government (and there’s no tuition). They’re called charter schools and have been around since the early 1990s. New research by SecondStreet.org shows students in Alberta’s charter schools earn, on average, test scores that are a full grade higher than…​Read More