Discussion and debate about the suitability of Ontario’s educational policies for our day and age, continues unabated by scholars in the field.
Joanna Dejong VanHof, Program Director, Education, at Cardus, a non-partisan, independent think tank, has written an important essay that urges citizens and decision-makers to think about the delivery of education in a subtly different way that she calls educational pluralism.
VanHof’s paper dovetails in all respects with the discussion about the fairness of Ontario’s educational funding policies. Educational pluralism refers to a system in which the government funds and regulates the delivery of education but does not necessarily deliver the education. Pluralism contrasts with the current system in Ontario in which the government has a monopoly over the delivery of education. It also contrasts with the system, which, in Ontario at least, is only theoretical, where parents have the freedom to choose the type of education most suited for their children.
VanHof’s superb essay provides insight and breadth to the vital public policy debate about the correctness in 2025 of Ontario’s entire approach to educating its children. She brings a broader, comparative, philosophical overview to the discussion surrounding the role of government in the education of its citizens as well as a prescriptive outlook regarding the mechanics of a pluralist system. VanHof contends – correctly in our estimation – that understanding educational pluralism, widening the lens, so to speak, enhances the public policy debate about the best method to deliver the best education possible.
She describes the system of educational pluralism as standing on three pillars: availability, access, and accountability. Availabilitymeans that schooling options should reflect the full range of diverse needs and values of children and communities. Access means that broad access to options should be facilitated by government funding and by reducing or eliminating geographic and technical barriers. Accountability means that schools should operate according to established norms that unify schools in their local areas and build societal trust more broadly. Government has a role to play in ensuring that broad goals are met relating to educational outcomes, student safety, and the like.
We record a few, brief excerpts from VanHof’s essay.
“The availability of schooling options…is a fundamental pillar of educational pluralism, rooted in the principle that a morally neutral education is both impossible and undesirable…..The extent to which a given jurisdiction embraces the pillar of availability may be measured by the presence of constitutional and legislative protections that permit independent education to exist and operate…”.
“Non-discrimination in the distribution of educational opportunities, broadly speaking, means that all members of society have access to their preferred form of schooling and that strenuous effort is made to remove unequal standards of schooling—in terms of both evaluation and quality. It is not intended to discourage the formation of independent schools and systems according to various pedagogical or religious values.”
VanHof concludes: “Educational pluralism seeks to accommodate a broad spectrum of beliefs about how best to provide this core institution of democratic society that is the education of children. It marries availability of very different options with broad access to them, and requires a commitment to negotiated, public accountability within distinct institutional spheres, working together in the common pursuit of quality education for each student and family.”
Her well-researched, heavily footnoted essay arrives at a propitious moment. It should help inform the vital debate about the adequacy, let alone the justice and the fairness, of Ontario’s current educational policies. It is available at: https://www.cardus.ca/research/education/reports/the-three-pillars-of-educational-pluralism/
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Special Educational Programme
On Thursday, September 4 at 7 PM, the New York-based Tikvah Foundation will be hosting an evening programme in Toronto with Drs. Ruth Wisse & Jonathan Silver to discuss The Crisis in Jewish Education: Rising to the Challenge. (Location to be announced.) Click here to register
For more information about the program, please see:
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GAJE’s legal team will appear before the Court of Appeal at 10:00 on November 21, 2025 to argue that the Divisional Court was wrong to reverse Judge Papageorgiou’s decision and to then dismiss our application.
If you wish to contribute to GAJE’s lawsuit, please click here. Charitable receipts for donations for income tax purposes will be issued by Mizrachi Canada. Your donations will be used for the sole purpose of helping to underwrite the costs of the lawsuit. For further information, please contact Israel Mida at: imida1818@gmail.com
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Shabbat shalom. Am Yisrael Chai
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
August 22, 2025
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 