A Look At Christian School

Those who've never been to a Christian school can have a glimpse of what it looks like thanks to this article in the Toronto Star. I find it quite fairly written, even though expressions such as "infuse the Ontario curriculum with Christian values" do seem like criticism.

On the observation page the author Louise Brown adds:

The first thing that strikes you is how comfortable they are talking about God – the principal, the teachers, the students.

You compliment the school's forest where students build forts at lunch, and a teacher says, "Yes, it's truly a blessing."

Yet sending your child to the Knox Christian School costs $9,000 to $12,500 a year. The short-lived tax credit program brought in by Mike Harris' government used to provide the parents with $350 in provincial tax credit. McGuinty government canceled the program retroactively to January 1st 2003. If the program had been maintained, the credit amount would have been gradually increased to $1750 (in 2006 and afterwards), reducing the out-of-pocket expense for the parents to anywhere between $7,250 and $10,750 a year.

John Tory's proposal is to provide public funding to faith-based schools. That would cover larger part of the tuition. But the funding would come with plenty of strings attached:

Many like the idea but want to know if teachers must join a union or would the school have to hire non-Christian teachers?

It's already known that faith-based schools won't be allowed to teach creationism (or intelligent design for that matter) in science class if they want to qualify for the funding. Many suspect (and quite reasonably) that in order to qualify for public funds, the school would be compelled to give up its Chrisitan identity.

To Lawrence Hellinga of the Dutch Christian Reformed Church, who sent his four children to Knox and has two grandchildren there, John Tory's offer is a mixed blessing.

"We don't just sprinkle Christianity on top of the curriculum. It's a lifestyle here and I'd feel quite leery about the government sending us money if they wanted to tell us what we can teach," said Hellinga.

"It's not one hour of Bible study. The whole school is permeated with a Christian flavour." Says principal Petrusma, "We do real school here".

Hopefully, their local FCP candidate finds an opportunity to let them know that there's a better solution to the issue. Under a Parental Choice System, proposed by the Family Coalition Party, the government would allocate a specific amount per child (in the form of a Child Education Cheque or a "Voucher") and it will be up to the parents to decide what school, public or private, should that amount be paid to.

Ontario currently spends about $9,400 per student in a school year. Applied to Knox Christian School tuition, that would bring parents' out-of-pocket expense to $3,100 or less, depending on their income. Instead of paying taxes to sustain a school system they don't use, each parent would pay his taxes to sustain a school of his choice - public or private, religious or secular. That's what I believe is a reasonable approach.