Public Funding - Expect The Rules To Change

Some believe that funding of faith-based schools is a wedge issue between Ontario's major political parties. But the fact is, they all have the same goal - to integrate the independent schools into the public system.

In a Globe and Mail article from today ("Caucus dissent grows over schools policy"), John Tory admitted that he sees his funding promise as a way to conflate the private (or at least the religious-private) and public schools into a single "public" system.

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What differs is the method by which this could be achieved. While the Liberals and the NDP would rather keep the status-quo and wait until the parents are tired of paying twice (for the public system they can't trust and for an independent school they send their kids to), the PC party prefers to accelerate the process by luring independent schools with public funds.

At first the conditions will be few - just follow the Ontario curriculum and don't teach creationism in science classes. But later the rules will change. Independent schools that take the funding bait will end up being stripped of their religious identity, becoming just ordinary public schools.

In 1988 Eden Christian College in Niagara On-The-Lake was facing very serious issues due to declining enrollment. The solution they pursued was to join the Lincoln County Public School Board as an alternative reli­gious school within the public board (as per the current Conservative proposal). Teach­ers' salaries almost doubled immediately and they were given a new computer lab. They eventually moved into part of a public high school building in nearby St. Catharines. There were no obvious detrimental 'strings' at the time, at least for the first year.

But within a few years things began to change. The public school board told them that they could no longer require students to attend chapel or take religious courses. Those would become optional before or after school programs. They could not hire teachers or principals on the basis of their beliefs, only that they were sympathetic to Christian be­liefs.

This year the public school board hired a non-Christian to be the school Principal. Within the first 3 years of becoming part of the public system they were ordered to re­move the word "Christian" from the school's name. They became Eden College. Last school year someone found out that teachers actually prayed in their staff meetings. That was outlawed too. In my opinion it would be extremely unwise to ignore this precedent when considering the Conservative plan.

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But what about Catholic schools? This question is often used as a counter-argument; as a proof that it is possible for the publicly-funded schools to retain their religious identity.

Is that really so? It wasn't that long ago, when the court had ordered a Catholic school to let a perverse student attend the prom with his "partner". The ruling was based on the notion that a taxpayer-funded school can not "discriminate" against perverts - even if the lifestyle they promote goes against the religion taught at that school.

If that's not convincing enough - check the Life Site News and see how often does it happen, that a radical teacher or a board member pushes in abortion-friendly counseling or a lecture on "safe-sex" to which the school (a Catholic school) has no right to say no. That's what John Tory's proposal would look like. Schools may still be allowed to teach traditional values (only in religion classes, never in social studies), but they won't be allowed to live up to them.