Private school enrolment keeps climbing, as parents looking to give their kids an edge dig deep to pay the steep costs | Canada Voices

Scott Gilmour went to public school and always assumed his kids would, too. But last year Mr. Gilmour and his wife enrolled their son in junior kindergarten at a private school and plan to do the same for their daughter next year.

Part of the reasoning was a family connection: His wife attended that same school, and his son’s cousins are going there now. But it was also the “accountability” that private schools have to their students and families, said Mr. Gilmour, who owns an insurance brokerage in Winnipeg. He also likes that the smaller class sizes will ensure his kids get more attention from their teacher.

Mr. Gilmour said the tuition cost, about $15,000 a year per child, is a worthwhile investment.

“It’s in the budget,” he said. “That said, if it wasn’t or if things changed, it’s something I would make a sacrifice for…I don’t think it’s necessary, but it’s really important to me where my kids are put in the best position to live happy, fulfilling lives.”

More and more Canadian parents are enrolling their kids in private school, often to set them up for academic success at a top university or to get them the dedicated attention and resources they feel aren’t as available in the public system. With tuitions ranging from $15,000 a year to as much as $50,000, many are making financial trade-offs such as lifestyle changes or delaying retirement savings to make the math work.

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People often assume “the 0.001 per cent are always and only the people sending their kids to private school,” said Samantha Sykes, a personal financial planner and investment advisor with Raymond James Ltd. in Toronto.

That’s just not the case, she said. “Some of them are the middle-class who are scraping by. But when your kids aren’t getting their needs met in public school, they are turning to private and figuring it out.”

The number of students enrolled in private or independent schools grew by about 9 per cent between the 2019-20 and 2023-24 school years, according to Statistics Canada. In comparison the number of public school enrolments increased by 3.6 per cent during the same period. (Public school is by far the most common choice, with more than five million students enrolled, compared to about 465,000 in private and independent schools.)

Jackie Porter, a certified financial planner with iA Private Wealth in Toronto, works with many lawyers and executives and said she thinks many are interested in private school to “stack the odds” in their kids’ favour, to prepare them for a tough job market that’s being quickly reshaped by artificial intelligence. Ms. Porter said her clients who are immigrants are prioritizing private school even more so.

“Your network is your net worth,” she said. “If you’re in a network of people who have more influence and access, it feels easier for your children to find jobs in the future.”

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Filiz Altinoglu, an educational consultant and founder of FutureBright Canada, said inquiries picked up during the pandemic, when many parents saw their children’s learning style for the first time. Some realized their kids were either quick learners who weren’t being challenged enough by the curriculum or needed more individual attention from their teacher.

Ms. Altinoglu enrolled her own son in private school after it became clear in his Grade 5 year that he was learning faster than his peers. While his public school teacher gave him additional homework to keep him engaged once Ms. Altinoglu spoke with her, she said a private school was better able to provide that support pro-actively. Her daughter remained in the public system, because she goes to a high school with a specialized arts program.

Ms. Sykes said she’s seen clients make changes such as de-prioritizing their retirement savings, pausing top-ups to their registered retirement savings plans and tax-free savings accounts, reducing the amount of clubs or sports they or their kids are part of, and cutting back on vacations to find room in the budget.

Private schools typically have certain entry years – usually junior kindergarten, Grade 1, 6 or 7, and Grade 9 – and some parents are delaying their children’s entry years and supplementing their earlier public school experience with tutors to save up for tuition costs, Ms. Sykes said.

Ms. Porter said some of her clients have taken on significant debt, such as taking out a large line of credit, to cover the costs, particularly those whose children plan to go on to a pricey U.S. university.

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Private school tuitions tend to increase by 3 to 5 per cent every year, faster than the rate of inflation, Ms. Sykes said. She noted that parents also have to account for incidentals such as uniforms, textbooks and technology costs, fundraising and the overseas class trips that are commonly part of the private school experience for middle- and high-schoolers.

“You don’t want your kid to feel left out,” she said. Given those costs, she said parents should be clear they’re actually making the investment for the right reasons.

Ms. Sykes said schools sometimes allow parents to reduce their tuition costs by volunteering or offer small discounts when multiple children are enrolled. Most have flexible payment terms.

Schools also often have financial aid programs. At Bishop Strachan School, an independent girls’ school in Toronto, applications reached a record high during the pandemic and have only increased since, said Hilary Adamson, the school’s executive director of enrolment management.

Even recently, amid difficult economic times, families continue to apply. The school has also seen “a pretty big increase” in the number of new and current families applying for financial assistance.

BSS has about $2-million in financial assistance from alumni donations, which provides support for both tuition and incidentals. “I think we do a really good job of sharing the process and making it really visible,” she said.

Kylie Williams and her husband sent their daughter to a private international baccalaureate school between junior kindergarten and Grade 8 after moving to a new neighbourhood and realizing their local public school wasn’t ranked highly.

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Ms. Williams, a communications professional in Vancouver, said that while tuition costs were manageable for the couple, moving their daughter to a public high school freed up financial room for experiences like a European vacation last summer.

Ms. Williams said she’d liked her daughter’s academics-focused private school, but wanted her to broaden her horizons in high school. Her daughter has been able to take cooking, woodworking and numerous science classes.

“We have no regrets about doing that, it got her off to a really good start,” Ms. Williams said. “But when it came time to make a decision about high school, we wanted her to have more choices.”