School Choice by Default? Understanding the Demand for Private Tutoring in Canada

This article links the demand for private tutoring to mounting desires for school choice. The number of private tutoring businesses is rapidly growing in Canada, even though its educational system lacks characteristics that spark a demand for those services in other countries. Testing ideas derived from the school choice literature, I examine which kinds of parents hire and desire private tutors and how this demand is linked to other educational preferences. Using data from a national survey, I find that parents who hire or desire tutoring do not generally differ from other parents in their demographics or political ideology. However, though parents who employ tutors are generally satisfied with public education, they are less satisfied than other parents and tend to be more involved in their children’s schooling. The largest effect is that parents who employ tutors are greatly more desiring of private schooling than other parents. I conclude that for many parents, private tutoring represents a “school choice by default,” an affordable alternative to private schools.