cation their children would receive was a democratic
right derived from the freedoms of religion and
conscience, both of which were guaranteed by the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Five provinces sup-
ported private schools: Quebec, Alberta, Saskatche-
wan, British Columbia, and Manitoba. Quebec was
the province with the highest percentage of students
in private schools and also with the most generous
funding for private schools. Such Québécois private
schools received funding based on their curricula:
Schools whose curricula were similar to those of pro-
vincial public schools received a grant for each en-
rolled student equal to 80 percent of the average
cost of educating a student. All the province’s other
private schools received grants totaling 60 percent
of the average cost per student.
In Alberta, the Association of Independent
Schools and Colleges of Alberta and the Edmonton
Society for Christian Education were the most active
organizations lobbying for private education. As a
result of their efforts, grants to private schools in-
creased from 33 percent to 75 percent of the average
cost per student. In 1981, legislation passed making
Albertan schools eligible for these grants after only a
single year of operation. The previous requirement
had been three years. In Saskatchewan, grants of 55
percent of the average cost per student were made to
those private schools that followed provincial curric-
ulum standards. Moreover, schools that had been in
operation for at least five years could be reimbursed
for up to 10 percent of their approved capital costs.
Meanwhile, not satisfied with 30 percent grants and
partial funding for operating costs and teachers’ sal-
aries, the British Columbia Federation of Indepen-
dent Schools Association pressed government and
ministry officials for more funding.
The Community Colleges Established between the
1960’s and the 1970’s as an adaptation of the Ameri-
can college system, Canada’s community colleges
had successfully provided many postsecondary stu-
dents with a second chance at education, one of
their original goals. The complex of social, eco-
nomic, cultural, and political objectives that they
had been designed to accomplish rendered Cana-
dian community colleges unique. In the 1980’s, the
community colleges faced a number of problems
that needed to be addressed. First, they lacked their
own measures of success, relying instead on more
general and less tailored measurements that robbed
them of a distinctive sense of identity and purpose.
Second, many of the colleges’ policies and practices
(regarding, for example, employment contracts and
capital facilities) had become obstacles to change.
Finally, there was a lack of a unifying goal among the
community colleges across the nation.
In the late 1980’s, a community college baccalau-
reate degree movement began in British Columbia
that sought to increase access to conventional uni-
versity programs. A government-appointed access
committee recommended that British Columbia in-
stitute baccalaureate degree programs in densely
populated regions outside Vancouver and Victoria.
Accordingly, the province selected some of its two-
year community colleges and converted them into
four-year institutions. Accredited universities in turn
partnered with the four-year community colleges to
award baccalaureate degrees to their students.
Impact Canadian second-language and multicul-
tural educational programs benefited during the
1980’s from a significant growth in the amount of
both teacher training and curricular development
designed to support these programs. By the end of
the decade, it was clear that the educational estab-
lishment, if not the majority of Canadians, had em-
braced policies of multiculturalism. Public schools
were expected to reexamine their cultural roles, re-
examine their programs, and foster this new under-
standing of Canadian identity.
Private schools across Canada kept lobbying for
more public aid in those provinces that had already
granted some aid. The combined trends of multicul-
turalism and public grants for private education led
some to predict that families whose linguistic, eth-
nic, cultural, or educational interests were not yet
served by Canadian schools would emerge to de-
mand support. Meanwhile, the problems faced by
community colleges provided a challenging test in
educational leadership. British Columbia provided
a model for other jurisdictions, should they wish to
consider introducing community college baccalau-
reate programs into their own postsecondary educa-
tional systems.
Further Reading
Axelrod, Paul.The Promise of Schooling: Education in
Canada, 1800-1914.Toronto: University of To-
ronto Press, 1997. Explores the social context in
which educational policy was formed and imple-
mented; provides a Canadian school experienceThe Eighties in America Education in Canada 311