A top border security official reveals the Canadian government's annual deportation targets, a new study finds Alberta's charter schools are outperforming the province's government-run public schools, and Prime Minister Mark Carney refuses to tell reporters what he meant when he warned Canadians they would have to make sacrifices ahead of his upcoming federal budget.
00:12:58.200The provincial government will want to think about how it can help more kids access these high-performing schools.
00:13:04.400This study found the largest gap in grade 9 mathematics, where charter students scored 14.1 percentage points higher than public school students in 2024.
00:13:17.320The smallest gap was in grade 6 science, where results were 6.2 points higher than Catholic schools.
00:13:24.480So, Waleed, people in Alberta might not actually know what charter schools are.
00:13:29.340So, can you explain, you know, what are charter schools, and what could explain why they are performing better than these government-run institutions in the province?
00:13:39.760Well, Clayton, a charter school, by definition, is a school that is independent but receives public funding.
00:13:45.800I think charter schools are essentially a product of the broader school choice movement,
00:13:50.220which was heavily influenced by my favorite economist, Milton Friedman, and his work.
00:13:54.840They're tuition-free public schools that operate independently from that of traditional public schools that are regulated by,
00:14:03.140for example, the Catholic School Board, the Public School Board, the French School Board,
00:14:07.240and the other school boards we have across provinces in Canada.
00:14:10.920Now, what makes them very successful for students' performance is that students are able to get more curated,
00:14:18.080individualized, and specialized education packages and opportunities,
00:14:22.040because, again, the school itself is independent.
00:14:24.940So, it's Board of Accountability, not a school board governing a region of thousands, if not millions of students,
00:14:32.140but rather dealing with the parents and the kids and the community itself.
00:14:37.260Of course, in different communities, different skills, different social education will be much more beneficial than in others,
00:14:44.660and that's where things become more helpful.
00:14:46.680You have, for example, programs like the IB, programs like exchange student programs, or travel abroad,
00:14:54.500all kinds of new innovative methods of getting students the best opportunity in their youth to learn and grow.
00:15:00.660These schools typically bring in a higher proportion, because, again, they're able to wage programs
00:15:06.460according to the needs of their own student population, rather than sharing a kind of a maximized, centrally governed model.
00:15:15.520Now, one of the criticisms that normally level against those that are not very much in favor of school choice,
00:15:21.480or, frankly, charter schools for that matter, are people that believe that charter schools essentially favor those
00:15:27.520that are already in privileged situations, maybe those that come from a high-income family or an upper-middle-class background.
00:15:34.300And the fact of the matter is, regardless of income, or in the case that we know we're living in the DEI era,
00:15:42.360where race will always be a part of conversations, even if they don't need be,
00:15:47.640the Sanford University's Hoover Institute actually published a major national study back in 2023,
00:15:54.060when they showed that the, and they used data based from 29 different states,
00:16:00.560including the District of Columbia and New York City specifically as well,
00:16:05.120the typical charter school student had been found to have greater math and reading gains
00:16:11.860that outpaced those peers in traditional public schools,
00:16:16.280but also those learning gains were significantly higher among blacks and Hispanics and those living in poverty.
00:16:24.240So the gain between public and private across the board is significant,
00:16:28.180but it's even more significant in terms of how we can bridge the gap and take people's potential higher
00:16:33.320when you're looking at people from low-income backgrounds or from, as we would say in the woke sense,