Private school vs public school in Ontario
Most comparisons of this are written by somebody selling one of the two. Here are the differences that are matters of fact rather than opinion, including the ones that do not flatter private schools.
First the words, because four of them get used loosely and two of them mean nothing in law.
What the words mean in Ontario
Ontario funds two school systems and regulates a third barely at all. Everything else is a description a school has chosen for itself.
| Term | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Public school | Funded and regulated by the province, run by a district school board. No tuition. Teaches the Ontario curriculum. |
| Catholic school | Also publicly funded, constitutionally protected, run by a separate board. No tuition. Teaches the Ontario curriculum plus religious education. |
| Private school | The legal category. Charges tuition, receives no public funding, and files a Notice of Intention to Operate each year. |
| Independent school | No separate legal standing: in law it is a private school. CIS Ontario defines it more narrowly as a private school that is not-for-profit and governed by a volunteer board, so on that reading only some private schools qualify. Used loosely it means any private school. |
| Non-profit school | A private school whose surplus is not distributed to owners. Says something about governance, nothing about oversight or quality. |
| Charter school | Does not exist in Ontario. Alberta has them; Ontario does not. |
The five differences that matter
Curriculum. Public and Catholic schools teach the Ontario curriculum. Private elementary schools choose their own and are not required to follow it.
Oversight. Public and Catholic schools are inspected and accountable to a board and the province. Private elementary schools are not inspected at all, and Ontario does not accredit or licence them. Only private secondary schools granting credits toward the OSSD are inspected, and only for that.
Teacher certification. Public and Catholic teachers must be certified by the Ontario College of Teachers. Private elementary teachers are not required to be.
Admission. Public and Catholic schools take the children in their attendance area. A private school chooses who it admits, subject to the Ontario Human Rights Code, which applies to it as a service provider.
Cost. Public and Catholic are free at the point of use. Private elementary in Durham Region runs from about $11,000 a year, and day schools in Toronto reach $46,270.
What that means in practice
The freedom and the lack of oversight are the same fact seen from two sides. A private school can teach money and business, engineering and a day largely outdoors precisely because nothing obliges it to spend those hours otherwise. Nothing obliges it to be good, either.
So the burden of proof sits with the private school, and it should. Ask what it teaches, ask to see it in writing, and ask what happens when you object to something in it.
Where we stand on the public system
Public schools do something genuinely hard, at a scale no private school attempts, and mostly do it well. We are not interested in running them down, and a good number of the families who ask about us have a child happily enrolled in one.
What we offer is different: small groups, a curriculum published to you before it is taught, and subjects most schedules have no room for. Whether that is worth the money is a judgement only you can make about your own child.
Questions about Straight answer
Do private school students do better?
The research is genuinely mixed once family income and parental education are controlled for, and anyone quoting you a clean number is selling something. Judge a specific school, not a category.
Is an independent school different from a private school?
Not in law. Both are private schools in Ontario. CIS Ontario draws a firmer line and defines an independent school as a private school that is not-for-profit and governed by a volunteer board, so on that reading only some private schools count. Either way the word brings no extra oversight and no accreditation.
Are Catholic schools private?
No. Catholic schools in Ontario are publicly funded and charge no tuition, under a constitutional protection that dates to Confederation. A private Catholic school is a separate thing and does charge.
Can my child go back to public school afterwards?
Yes. Movement between the two is normal, and at elementary level there are no credits at stake to complicate it.