On wedge issues in Ontario

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

I don't believe in funding 'faith based' education. Mainly because I think that is the mandate of churches not schools.

Living in a more rural part of Ontario I can agree that some of the concern is religious prejudice, however, some of it is economics.

Currently large numbers of kids on rural roads must walk long distances on bad roads early in the morning while it is still dark to meet the bus.

Busing is constantly being cutback and there are so many 'fund raisers' and various things there might as well be school user fees.

McGuinty asked school boards across the province to cut back even more. One can only assume that soon education will be only for those that can afford it.

Until these issues can be addressed the idea of creating yet more competition for the few education dollars available seems ludicrous.

I think we'll create more troubles if we fund these faith based schools. Every penny that goes to church schools comes out of our public education system. We simply cannot afford to take funding away from cash-strapped school boards and give it to religious education. We need to put more into our public schools - not less. Over the past 20 years, our schools have been forced to trim their budgets by eliminating art and music from the curriculum. Schools have been forced to amalgamate. What was formerly a high school (grade 8 - 12) in my area is now grade 7 - 12. Serious issues are cropping up wrt bullying and sexual encounters between grade 12 boys and grade 7 girls. This followed the recent opening of a new, super deluxe Catholic high school.

I grew up and was educated in the US. There were plenty of Catholic schools but they got zero public funding. Dedicated Catholic parents who were finacially able paid the tuition and sent their kids to Catholic school. Many Catholic students, however, were educated in public schools. Either their parents couldn't afford the luxury of private, religious schooling or they opposed the concept of separation on the basis of religion. The outcome was that we protestant kids had Catholic classmates who also became our friends.

I have a lot of Canadian family and growing up, I was very close to my Canadian cousins. Even as a fairly young child of 11 or 12, I saw my protestant Canadian cousins distrusted and disliked Catholics far more than any of my American public school classmates. I wasn't aware of teh nature and history of Catholic school funding when I was an American kid. After moving to Canada and raising a child in our school system, I realized why my cousins were so intolerant. They'd been kept apart from Catholics and they distrusted what they didn't understand. 

The Newfies made a sensible move. Interestingly enough, Newfoundland was the scene of some horrific pitched Protestant-Catholic battles that are reminiscent more of Northern Ireland than of Canada.

We need excellence in education. We owe that to our children and to future generations of Canadians. We won't maintain or develop an excellent system if we divvy up what little resources we have among as many disparite groups as can cobble together a classroom. Keep religion out of the public purse and out of public education. That's why they have Sunday Schools.

I think that Ontario taking the constitutional steps to eliminate the Catholic school board is FAR LESS messy than what Tory is proposing.   What Tory wants to do will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and take badly needed money from public school particularly if every "wacky" religion under the sun decides it wants in and that is before we even consider what IMHE (expectation) will be the horrible effects for social harmony and secularism in the province.    It'll also be very very very difficult to reverse.  Far more difficult than it would be to eliminate funding for Catholic schools now.

That being said I find McGuinty's position totally ludicrous as well.  Its possibly the most disappointing aspect of his time in office.  It would be one thing if he said his long term goal was to eliminate funding for Catholic schools but that more time was needed.   I would understand that.   I'd prefer that he have the courage to actually take the steps now but it would be better than letting religious schools get their "foot in the door" so to speak.    But the tradition argument is ludicrous.    One of my favourite quotes of all time was by GK Chesterton when he said "Tradition means giving a vote the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors.  It is the democracy of the dead".   Some of the most important progressive initiatives of the past hundred years have been made in the face of the tradition argument. 

Am I missing something here?  It seems to me some funding for Catholic schools is established in the BNA of 1867.  No such guarantee exists for other  denominations.

Way back in 1935 Liberal leader fought for extended funding for Catholic schools based on constitutional grounds.  And he won a smashing victory.

Look in on my blog  at neilmckenty.wordpress.com

lol.  Just saw the date on the post.