John Tory, the Ontario PC leader, proposes to extend education funding to private religious schools. He suggests that since Ontario subsidizes Catholic schools in return for the taxes paid by Catholics, it would be only fair to extend the same deal to religious schools of other faiths and denominations. After all, parents of those children are taxpayers too.
The Premier Dalton McGuinty (a Liberal) denounces the proposal. He suggests that all those children should be brought into the public system which, in his opinion would encourage integration, rather than segregation. So it may even seem like the two parties actually disagree on the issue of education funding. Until you check out the details.
Here's the catch: John Tory doesn't hide that the primary objective of his plan is to bring 50,000 children now being taught in unfunded and unregulated faith-based schools into the public system through a common curriculum. Which among other things includes teaching evolution, sex education and other subjects that the parents find objectionable. Just as I wrote a couple months ago, public funding will cost independent religious schools their identity.
So the only difference between the Tory plan and the Liberal government policy is that John Tory would allow the schools to keep their religious affiliation - although in name only. Parents would still believe they are sending their kids to independent religious schools. But the values taught in those schools would be indistinguishable from the values taught in any public school in Ontario. Dalton McGuinty with his suggestion that all those children better attend regular public schools turns out to be much more honest.
But there is an alternative to both. The Family Coalition Party of Ontario proposes a voucher system which will establish parental choice in education and ensure fair funding for every school while allowing independent schools to maintain their autonomy. In fact, Family Coalition Party is the only political party in Ontario that proposes actual reforms in the education system rather than suggesting to just throw in more cash.
3 comments:
FYI: My kids go to faith-based Jewish schools which are already following the Ontario General Curriculum. All 650,000 Catholic students in the public school system study the Ont curriculum. No problem for us! We would welcome any plan that gave funding. We already tried a tax credit which, like a voucher system, had very little public support. The public wants monitoring and standardized testing for its money. The UN ruled discrimination and the only way to solve is by giving non-Catholic schools the same treatment as the Catholic schools -full funding within the public school system.
If you prefer to pay your taxes and have someone else telling you what values should your children be taught at school - that's up to you to choose.
You've mentioned Catholic schools which follow the Ontario General Curriculum. Not sure if all of them actually follow the curriculum in its entirety (including teaching "sex education", evolution as 'sole truth' etc) but I know from LifeSite news that it is the case for some. Either way, it only confirms what I said in my article: That public funding has cost Catholic schools their identity, as the schools are being forced to teach values that go against the teachings of the Catholic faith.
So if you are ok with the values taught at the school where you send your children - good for you. Yet FYI - there are many parents who are concerned about the value system (or lack of thereof) contained in the Ontario General Curriculum. That's the primary reason why their children attend independent faith-based schools. For them, a proposal to give up traditional values in return for public funding is unacceptable.
Interesting to watch the election start to heat up. Driving into work today I heard a new commercial from John Tory. Found them online. Its worth a listen.
http://www.ontariopc.com/pctv.asp
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