Leonard Baak, "Ontario government must only fund a single school system", Kanata Kourier Standard, July 13, 2007.
 
Reprinted with the permission of the author.
 
COMMENT
 
Ontario government must only fund a single school system
 
John Tory’s recent promise to extend full funding to all religious schools if he is elected Premier has once again focused attention on the inherent unfairness of a school system that affords additional school choice and employment options to the members of a single faith group and to no others.
 
The discrimination of the status quo is clearly untenable in a country that professes to believe in the fundamental equality of its citizens.  The question is:  what do we do to address it?
 
In condemning the discrimination in the Ontario school system in 1999, the UN Human Rights Committee pointed out that “the (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) does not oblige State parties to fund schools which are established on a religious basis”, but that if they chose to, they must fund all such schools without discrimination.  In short, we must fund all religious schools equally or fund none.
 
I believe it is time for the Government to cease funding all sectarian religious schools – including the Catholic variety.
 
Non-Catholic parents currently take personal responsibility for the spiritual education of their own children.  Catholic parents could do the same, just as they do very successfully in other jurisdictions.
 
The state should not be involved.  Democratic governments should be religiously neutral; something they cannot be while functioning as the arbiter of which faiths deserve public support and which do not.
 
Moving to a single public school system for each official language would offer a host of benefits to the people of Ontario.  The first is better stewardship of existing education funding.
 
English Catholic school boards generally receive significantly higher funding on a per pupil basis than their coterminous English public boards.  French boards receive vastly higher funding than their coterminous English boards.
 
These boards receive this higher funding not because of Government favouritism, but in order compensate for the diminished economies of scale and the inefficiencies arising from having smaller and more widely dispersed student populations.  Under a single school system for each official language, per pupil costs would fall, permitting improvements to education for all children within the existing funding envelope.
 
Tens of thousands of students are currently bussed right past their nearest publicly funded school to attend another publicly funded school.  They would have shorter commutes or might even walk under one system; bringing lifestyle, health, and environmental benefits in addition to financial savings.
 
A move to a single public school system would also bring children of all backgrounds together in an environment that fosters mutual respect and understanding.
 
Ontario is a very diverse society and the best way for us to learn about each other is to begin respectful interaction at an early age.  A common school system would facilitate that, providing our children with a means to discover what unites them as well as what makes them unique.
 
Multiculturalism should entail respectful and mutually enriching engagement, not isolation and physically separate development.  Respect for others is not a value that can be taught as effectively in a system of segregated schools.
 
Now is not the time for Ontario to step backwards, finding new ways to separate ourselves from those who are unlike us.  Now is not the time to compound the duplication penalty already borne by the taxpayer in funding a parallel Catholic system by funding even more segregated schools.
 
Instead, let’s build truly neighbourhood schools that draw families of all backgrounds together in environments that fully reflect the diversity of their communities.  Let’s establish the primacy of fundamental equality rights over non-fundamental denominational privilege.  Let’s ensure better stewardship of the resources committed to the education of our children.
 
It is time for one school system in Ontario.
 
Leonard Baak
 
Leonard Baak is a father of two and president of Education Equality in Ontario (www.OneSchoolSystem.org), a non-governmental human rights organization and education advocacy group seeking a single publicly-funded school system for each official language (English and French).
 

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