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Lighting a Fire -- Starting new chapters of OneSchoolSystem.org

12/6/2014

Will you help us light a fire?

Leonard Baak
December 6th, 2014

We need your help. The Ontario Government currently plans to force school closures and consolidations to reduce the inventory of surplus pupil places (empty seats), which has ballooned from 120,000 to 416,000 during their time in office. That in itself is not an unreasonable idea, but doing so without simultaneously merging the public and Catholic school systems will be bad news for Ontario communities. It will be bad news for Ontario families and their children. Ontario's school system really is at a critical juncture.

Far too many Ontario students (my own included) ride buses for long distances to other communities to attend school. If under enrolled public and Catholic schools are separately closed while maintaining the two solitudes of separate but overlapping public and Catholic school systems, more students will be condemned to this fate.

Far too many Ontario students attend low enrolment schools that cannot achieve the critical mass of students necessary to support the more enhanced program selection available at fully enrolled schools. Most often, the only reason these schools cannot achieve that critical mass is because the children in their communities are needlessly divided into Catholic and non-Catholic camps.

Amalgamating the school systems would dramatically reduce the number of children bused to schools in communities other than their own while resulting in shorter average commutes for those that still require busing.

Amalgamating the school systems would facilitate the creation of more fully enrolled community schools that have fewer split grade classes and can achieve the critical mass to offer greater program choice more cost effectively.

Ontario has never really had true community schools of the type that most of Canada and the United States enjoy. Ontario schools are not true community focal points -- but rather focal points for the sub-populations that are of one faith or not of that faith. Ontario schools do not unite communities -- they divide them. In some cases, children in communities of nearly 20,000 people are bused to other communities to attend school.

Rather than ending the legacy of waste and discrimination in our school system and its attendant injury, our government seems set to compound it. We cannot let that happen. It is time for the people of Ontario to stand up and say "Enough is enough. No more waste. No more discrimination. No more children suffering the consequences resulting from a narrowly possessed and unjustifiable privilege." Please join us in standing up and making these demands.

I apologize for failing to engage those of you who have contacted us in the past with offers of help. We still have some of those contacts and will be following up shortly. If you do not hear from us, please contact us again. The status quo pronouncements of politicians notwithstanding, success has never been so close -- and success has never been so important to the people and communities of Ontario.

We need to win this fight. We need to win it now.

Real community schools. Real community focal points.

Children learning in their own communities. Less cross-community busing.

Fewer split grade classes. Greater academic opportunities and choices.

Greater cost effectiveness. Less waste.

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Education in Ontario – A Critical Juncture

11/22/2014

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Leonard Baak
November 22nd, 2014

I was doing my regular media scan for news about Ontario Catholic schools, school closings, deficits, and the like when I came across two stories in which Ontario Progressive Conservative education critic Garfield Dunlop was quoted:

"Isn't it amazing that Greg Sorbara, after 12 years in government, would come out with that now and not the year we talked about faith-based funding under John Tory? Now he’s going to be the saviour of secular society? Give me a break.” Dunlop thinks the time is not right to break down a working education system and replace it with something else. “I’m a person who believes in the 72-board system. I believe it functions well. It’s part of our heritage, our culture. In my opinion it’s not negotiable.”
Michael Swan, "Prominent Catholic politician calls for end to Catholic school system", The Catholic Register, 2014-11-19.

Do we move into the future burdened by the legacy of our intolerant past? To do so would itself be intolerant of the religious diversity we find in 21st century Ontario. Never mind that financially and logistically, the status quo in education in Ontario is insane.

The Progressive Conservatives said school closings would inevitably be in small-town and rural Ontario, where schools are often the hub of the community, and warned that shutting down some of them would not result in huge savings. "Shutting them down and busing kids 15, 20 or 30 kilometres away, I don't think is an option," said PC education critic Garfield Dunlop. "And I don't think it's going to save her $500 million either."
Keith Leslie, "Ontario government planning $500M cut to education funding: NDP", ctvnews.ca, 2014-11-18.

I found these statements rather striking in that the stumbling block that is his support for publicly funded Catholic education seems to have clouded his ability to see clearly.

The primary reason there are so many under enrolled and fiscally inefficient schools in rural, urban, and northern communities is because the children in those communities continue to be divided into Catholic and non-Catholic factions. Yes, many of these schools were once full and declining enrolment has led to their current low enrolment levels. In almost all cases, however, it is Ontario’s religious educational divide that now prevents these communities from realizing the critical mass of students required to support viable and cost effective schools locally. If only the two solitudes could be brought together with Catholic and non-Catholic children attending the same schools in the same classrooms. If only the combined inventory of Catholic and public schools were managed as one inventory for the good of all children in a community – open and accessible to all. As it stands now, it seems the Government will soon force Ontario’s Catholic and truly public school boards to separately close some of their under enrolled schools – condemning the affected children in each board to long commutes elsewhere to go to school. That would be a shame.

Ontario already needlessly busses hundreds of thousands of children past their nearest publicly funded school each day to attend another school farther away (my own children included). Rather than adding to their numbers, we should reduce them by merging the best of the public and Catholic school systems into one system. Closing an under enrolled school in any one school board is inexcusable in a community having two or more schools – irrespective of school board – that could be collectively rationalized to create viable, more fully enrolled, and more cost effective schools in that community. It should be the right of every child to attend a school in their own community if that community has the critical mass of children to support a viable and cost effective school locally. Schools can only truly be the heart of a community when they exist in that community. Schools can only truly be the heart of a community when they unite the community’s children rather than divide them.

In Ontario, non-Catholic families are disproportionately affected by school closings. While Catholic parents can always use their local public school if their local Catholic school closes, non-Catholic parents may not see a sectarian Catholic school as a viable alternative – even in cases where the Catholic school does not exercise its right to reject non-Catholic children. Even at the secondary level where “open access” is supposed to apply, Catholic schools routinely strive to make themselves unwelcoming to non-Catholic families by refusing to honour the Education Act provision allowing children to opt-out of the religious programmes – or by honouring that provision only grudgingly after much insistence on the part of parents.

Throwing money at severely under enrolled rural, urban, and northern schools to fund their inefficiencies is not wise policy for a heavily indebted government that is finding it increasing difficult to fund our truly essential programs. Yet that seems to be what the PC education critic is suggesting above (to be fair, NDP education critic Peter Tabuns seems to suggest the same thing). How else would a school board perform the magic of keeping scores of half empty schools open to save their students from onerous and unreasonable bus commutes? How would that be fiscally conservative – or fiscally responsible? Does Mr. Dunlop recognize the relative costliness of under enrolled schools? Does he recognize the costliness of the massive overlap and duplication in our school system?

The number of surplus pupil places in Ontario schools has ballooned from 120,000 when the Liberal government first took power to over 416,000 today (Ministry of Education figures). This week, Education Minister Liz Sandals told the legislature Ontario spends “about $1 billion on empty seats”. That’s annually. Something has to be done. Sandals says her government will abide by the constitutional requirement to fund separate schools, but she needs to explain why – given that requirement is no more of an obstacle to the elimination of Catholic school funding than she or her government wish it to be. Quebec and Newfoundland preceded Ontario in eliminating similar constitutional requirements through straightforward bilateral amendments with Ottawa in the late 1990s. Both now have a single public school system for each official language (one English and one French).

The 19th century politicians whose actions established "our heritage" with respect to religious schools never intended to elevate Catholic Ontarians into a position of privilege or advantage over Ontarians of every other faith. The Catholic school system was at first a reciprocal privilege granted when Ontario and Quebec shared a joint legislature in the United Province of Canada.

Quebec (Lower Canada) Protestants were granted a separate school system so that their children were not forced to attend the predominately Catholic public schools used by the Catholic majority. Similarly, Ontario (Upper Canada) Catholics were granted a separate school system so that their children were not forced to attend the predominately Protestant public schools used by the Protestant majority. Mutual Catholic-Protestant and Anglo-Irish animosities were significant motivations for these developments -- animosities that are virtually non-existent today. Language was another factor.

Ontario's public school system is no longer Protestant and Quebec eliminated publicly funded religious schools in 1997. Ontario and Quebec societies are no longer 99% Christian, but are now far more diverse. The original “reciprocity” of religious school funding has now evolved into a very one-sided privilege. If there was any “deal” at Confederation, it has long been broken. It is appalling that our politicians refuse to acknowledge that and do something about it.

Education in Ontario is at a critical juncture. Ontarians must speak out now to make sure our politicians make decisions in everyone's best interest -- not kowtowing to narrow and unfairly privileged religious interests. No less than the quality of our children’s education, our communities, and our collective quality of life is at stake.

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Ontario children win recognition of right to opt-out of religious courses and programs in publicly funded Catholic high schools

4/7/2014

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Press Release

Ontario children win recognition of right to opt-out of religious courses and programs in publicly funded Catholic high schools.

April 7, 2014

For immediate release.

(Ottawa, Ontario) - The directors of OneSchoolSystem.org were pleased to learn this weekend that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has recognized the right of Ontario parents to procure an exemption for their children from religious courses and programs in Ontario's publicly funded Catholic high schools. Section 42 (11)-(13) of the Education Act has long provided parents with a right to apply for and receive an exemption from religious courses and programs for their children in Ontario's publicly funded Catholic high schools, but that right has almost never been respected by the school boards involved.

Brampton father Oliver Erazo bravely fought the intransigence of his local Catholic school board for two years to win recognition of his right to a full exemption from religious courses and programs for his children.

"Ontario families bear a heavy cross so that Catholic Ontarians can have a segregated, sectarian school system at public expense", said OneSchoolsystem.org president Leonard Baak. "Hundreds of thousands of children are consigned to long commutes past their nearest publicly funded school each day to attend another one farther away. Many of these children are also denied the opportunity to attend a school in their own communities", said Baak, "and the entire system is impoverished by the costly and unnecessary overlap and duplication."

"Today, these burdens are a little lighter for families -- Catholic or not -- preferring a non-sectarian school environment for their children", said Baak. "Parents of grade 9-12 students living in a community where the nearest school, the least crowded school, or the best school is Catholic can now chose that school without fear that their children will be forced to take sectarian courses and programs of little interest to them or with which they may disagree."

The decision in the Erazo v. Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board case does nothing, however, to change the situation of parents with grade JK-8 children. Catholic elementary schools still have an absolute right to reject non-Catholic children based on faith and exercise this right in most cases. Children admitted to these schools must still comply with the sectarian elements of their courses and programs. “Open access” legislation pertaining to Catholic high schools only applies beginning in grade 9.

Parents wishing to obtain further information about exemptions from religious courses and programs in Ontario's publicly funded Catholic high schools should visit myexemption.com, a web site dedicated to providing such information and assisting parents in obtaining these exemptions.

Contact:

Leonard Baak, president, OneSchoolSystem.org

Reference:

Education Act R.S.O. 1991, Chapter E.2 Section 42 (11) and (13)

Erazo v. Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, 2014 ONSC 2072, Court File No.: 13-44-00, 2014-04-04

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Op-Ed: The case for one public school system

11/2/2013

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The following opinion piece by Leonard Baak appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on November 1st, 2013 and is reprinted below with their permission.

Op-Ed: The case for one public school system

BY LEONARD BAAK, OTTAWA CITIZEN

Ontario’s Liberal government launched an open policy initiative this month called “Common Ground”, for which they are using a website to crowdsource policy ideas for their next election platform. It is a relatively new idea that has the potential to revolutionize the concept of consultative government.

Proponents of one school system in Ontario can be forgiven for viewing the initiative with a healthy dose of skepticism, however — especially given Education Minister Liz Sandals’ arbitrary dismissal of the idea shortly after the “Common Ground” initiative’s launch. Sandals was quoted as saying that a move to one publicly funded school system (merging the public and Catholic school systems into one) was “not in the cards” because “both French and Catholic education are constitutionally protected and we will continue to respect the Constitution.”

Sandals conveniently ignored the fact that the very same Constitution that protects Ontario’s wasteful and discriminatory Catholic school system also provides a bilateral amendment mechanism to remove that protection. The Ontario government can propose an amendment rescinding denominational school “rights” at any time, after which the amendment would pass to the House of Commons and Senate for their approval before receiving royal assent. Such an amendment would remove the only legal impediment to the amalgamation of Ontario’s public and Catholic school systems.

Quebec and Newfoundland each secured this sort of amendment in the late 1990s, before each moved to a single public school system for each official language. The entire process took just over four months in the Newfoundland case. Clearly the Constitution is no more an obstacle to the creation of a fair and fiscally responsible school system than Sandals and her government wish it to be. As much was stated earlier this month in a judgment issued by Mr. Justice David Corbett of the Ontario Superior Court:

“The United Nations jurisprudence (finding the funding of religious schools in Ontario unjustly discriminatory) may be of persuasive authority in Canadian courts, but it cannot be used to amend or repeal constitutional provisions. Rather, it is a signal from the United Nations that s. 93 of the Canadian constitution offends international human rights norms. Solving that problem, if it is thought to be a problem, is a matter of political action: constitutional amendment, as was done in Quebec and Newfoundland.”

Sandals also raises a red herring with regard to French education. Those calling for one public school system almost universally support French education, insisting only that it be provided in a single French school system. Apart from being more cost effective, such a system would arguably protect the francophone minority in the province more effectively than the divided system they have now.

If the “Common Ground” initiative is really being conducted in good faith and not the appearance of such, the government must weigh the ideas presented there on their merits. Sandals or a successor will soon have to acknowledge that the continued public funding of a completely non-essential Catholic school system detracts from the government’s ability to fund the truly essential programs that contribute to a well-educated workforce, alleviate pain and suffering, and help the genuinely disadvantaged among us. They have but one pot of taxpayer money — and any funds diverted to non-essentials like duplicate, overlapping school systems take away from the funds available for the essential programs we truly rely on.

There is already no shortage of Ontarians affected by school closings, long school bus commutes, unreasonable medical wait times, wage restraint, or other cutbacks or funding shortfalls. At over $10 billion annually and climbing, debt servicing has become Ontario’s third largest budgetary expenditure behind health care and education. Those debt servicing costs represent an enormous opportunity cost.

Without some hard choices, austerity-induced suffering will increase dramatically when today’s historically low interest rates finally rise — and Ontario’s debt servicing costs with them. I am reasonably confident that Sandals and her colleagues could not possibly be cold-hearted enough to let that additional suffering unfold without trying to stop it. I am reasonably confident that the wasteful duplication represented by overlapping public and Catholic school systems will soon end. Fiscal circumstances will force the government’s hand. Far better that they recognize that now to reap the maximum benefits of the hard choices they will eventually be forced to make anyway. Failing to move swiftly to a single public school system will mean increased and unnecessary hardship later.

No more excuses, particularly of the especially feeble constitutional variety. It is a time for leadership.

Leonard Baak is president of OneSchoolSystem.org, Ottawa

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

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Living on another planet - while never leaving Toronto.

10/27/2013

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Visiting Mars

A column appeared in the Toronto Star this weekend by columnist Rosie DiManno, who unleashed an astonishing level of venom on a Brampton father and his sense of "entitlement" for asking that his children – who have opted out of sectarian instruction at their local Catholic high school (their right under the Education Act) – be supervised during the school day while the rest of the students attend sectarian observances. Besides that "grievance", the piece was riddled with ignorance, arrogance, and irony – points addressed by OneSchoolSystem.org president Leonard Baak in a letter to the editor (printed here with similar letters on Nov. 2, 2013):

Re: Brampton father fighting with Catholic school board should consider public school, Oct. 25, 2013

Rosie DiManno’s recent opinion on non-Catholics exercising their right to an exemption from religious studies in publicly funded Catholic schools was breathtaking in its ignorance, arrogance, and irony.

The Education Act states pretty clearly that anyone attending a Catholic secondary school who is qualified to attend a public secondary school – which is everyone including Catholics – can opt out of the religious programs. It is the law in this province – and a whole lot less objectionable than the law that awards one supremely favoured faith with a segregated sectarian school system denied to every other faith – but paid for by all.

Catholic schools do not have higher expectations with respect to academics or conduct. Those are pretty universal system wide. When a Catholic school does outrank a nearby public school on standardized testing, it is frequently because they have lower numbers of special needs students, English language learners, immigrant children, and children whose mother tongue is not English. Test results include such contextual data to allow real apples to apples comparisons. According to the 2001 Census (the last long form Census to have credibility), Catholic Ontarians also suffer lower unemployment and enjoy a higher level of educational attainment than Ontarians at large. Catholic schools typically have a whiter and more socio-economically advantaged population than their public counterparts and the usually slight differences in test results often reflect that.

It is supremely arrogant to suggest that a non-Catholic parent should move his children down the road to a truly public school if he wants them to have a non-sectarian education. A consequence of Ontario’s fractured school system is that hundreds of thousands of children are bused past their nearest publicly funded school every day to attend another one farther away. Many are bused to distant communities. All schools are open to Catholic children, so they need only suffer such inconveniences voluntarily. Non-Catholics, on the other hand, often have no choice. Where they do have a choice – at the high school level where “open access” is supposed to apply – having the right to withdraw from the overtly sectarian components of the program is a small consolation for having to attend a sectarian school in order to be educated in their own community.

It is ironic that a Catholic schools apologist like DiManno would speak of “entitlement, privilege and prerogative” when deriding a non-Catholic parent who only wishes to have his kids receive a good non-sectarian education near their home. There is no greater “entitlement, privilege and prerogative” in Ontario than that granted to Catholic Ontarians exclusively in the form a wasteful and discriminatory sectarian school system, but DiManno would instead demonize a man trying to mitigate the consequences of that privilege on his family. Missing the forest for the trees, she is. Our Charter of Rights effectively prevents the award of real privilege to anyone other than Ontario Catholics, whose publicly funded sectarian schools are exempt from the force and effect of its equality provisions.

What lessons does Ms. DiManno believe are taught by giving segregated school “rights” to the members of the Catholic faith exclusively? Love thy neighbour as thyself? No. It teaches otherwise good Catholic children that some animals are more equal and more entitled than others – and that “love thy neighbour” is a slogan to be used only when you are getting the short end of the stick. That is a lesson she might want to teach her children, but not one I want to teach mine.

Leonard Baak
president, OneSchoolSystem.org, Ottawa

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Equality - A Promise Unfulfilled.

6/16/2013

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Leonard Baak, president, OneSchoolSystem.org
June 16, 2013

Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument.

I was strolling around in downtown Ottawa yesterday and it being a beautiful sunny day, I was in a very good mood. Then I stumbled across the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument, which reads "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." Of course, then I couldn't help but feel a tad angry, as such high ideals are not a reality within the context of the Ontario school system -- where the members of the favoured Catholic sect of the Christian faith are uniquely honoured with rights not only denied to their fellow Ontarians, but that come at a significant cost to them as well.

Against all logic, public desire, and in defiance of modern human rights norms, Ontario still clings tightly to the legacy of 19th century Catholic-Protestant animosities. You can thank our Members of Provincial Parliament for that -- and the selfish vested interests who lobby them tirelessly to preserve their unwarranted, undeserved, and very costly privilege.

Someday soon the high ideals expressed on that monument will reflect what most Ontarians already believe and practice. I am confident of that. Sadly, some aren't there yet. One can still only dream of what could be and should be when strolling by that beautiful monument and reading the even more beautiful sentiment it expresses. Try to imagine Ontario as such a place -- then help us make it happen.

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

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Fiddling while Rome burns

5/3/2013

4 Comments

Leonard Baak, president, OneSchoolSystem.org
May 3, 2013

I watched Ontario PC MPP Lisa MacLeod comment on yesterday's Ontario budget on CTV Morning News (Ottawa) this morning. The comment that struck me most forcefully was that Ontario spends over a million dollars an hour -- every hour of every day -- on interest payments on the provincial debt.

I checked her math and discovered she understated the problem by $210,000. We're actually spending $1,210,000 an hour to pay interest of $10.6 billion a year on Ontario's existing debt of over $260 billion. God help us when rates rise.

Given this reality, it is hard to believe that our government thinks it prudent to add to this debt at an even faster hourly rate while continuing to spend at least $1 billion a year in duplication costs so that Catholic Ontarians can have a segregated school system. That's at least $114,000 an hour for Catholic schools -- every hour of every day -- for those of you who didn't do the math.

An image of priests tending an eternal Ontario flame with endless stacks of $20 bills springs to mind -- while people suffer as our truly essential services rot and decay for want of adequate funding. Another image springing to mind ... Emperor Nero with a fiddle.

Happy Catholic Education Week (May 5-10, 2013). Come celebrate by the fire. Your MPPs are already there. They brought the fuel after lifting it from your pockets.

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Loving thy Neighbour

1/28/2013

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Leonard Baak, president, OneSchoolSystem.org
January 28, 2013

"I'm sorry, but your type is not welcome here."

It sounds like something you might have heard in Victorian England or the American South in the 19th or early to mid 20th centuries. Discrimination reared its ugly head on many fronts. In England, the class you were born into largely determined how far you could go in life. Few women anywhere had any say in public affairs. Black Americans – particularly in the south – faced segregation in education and a life toiling in a low paying job.

This week, the Windsor Star reported here on another insidious form of discrimination: nepotism. "I'm sorry, but you lack the genetic qualifications for a teaching position in our schools."

It is alleged – and is denied by school board officials – that nepotism is giving some teacher applicants to the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board an unfair advantage when it comes to landing jobs. Whether or not there is truth to this allegation is not what piqued our interest. What piqued our interest was the spectacle of Catholic teacher applicants crying foul over discrimination.

In Ontario, Catholic teacher applicants have 50% more job opportunities in publicly funded education than non-Catholic teacher applicants. Why? Because one third of Ontario's publicly funded teaching positions – those in our Catholic school boards – are essentially closed to two thirds of the population – the non-Catholics. Ontario's publicly funded Catholic school boards, you see, have an absolute right to refuse employment to non-Catholic teachers at all grade levels – and they exercise this right to the fullest.

Non-Catholic teachers are as rare as Sasquatches in Catholic schools and where you can find one, they are ineligible for permanent positions, advancement, or promotion. Those we have spoken to are desperate to see an end to Catholic school funding so they’ll be able to compete for any publicly funded teaching position on their merits as a teacher.

With regard to nepotism in the Windsor Essex Catholic board, as difficult and desperate the situation of some Catholic teacher applicants might be, that of any non-Catholic teacher applicant is far worse. School boards should hire the best teacher applicants period – not the best by blood or by baptism. The admission of students to publicly funded schools should be similarly non-discriminatory.

Discrimination hurts. While we do sympathize with Catholic teachers facing it, it is our fervent hope that all reflect upon the greater pain of their non-Catholic neighbours.

Matthew 22:36-40 New International Version (NIV)

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Here endeth the lesson.

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Publicly funded Catholic schools – A good idea in 2012?

5/8/2012

33 Comments

Most people who have lived in Ontario for a while know that Catholic schools, and no other religious schools, receive 100% of their funding from taxpayers.

Fewer know that all taxpayers bear the costs of Catholic schools equally. All Ontarians bear a tax burden based upon their income and property, not their faith. School support designations on municipal tax forms have no effect on the total funding any school board receives. School board funding levels are now determined based on enrolment and other documented needs.

Fewer still know that public funding for Catholic schools began way back in 1841, when Ontarians were a lot more religious than today and could generally be classified as either Catholic or Protestant -- neither of which had much tolerance for the religious teachings of the other. While the law allowed each group to have schools and teachers of their own “religious persuasion” (the term used in the law), in practice that right only really applied to Catholics. The “Protestants” (non-Catholics) were all lumped together, despite the objections of Anglican clergy who agitated for their own separate schools.

Ontario has changed in many ways in the ensuing years. The mutual intolerance that might have provided a justification for Catholic separate schools in the 19th century is largely non-existent today. Where it does exist, it tends to focus on non-Christian faiths. The Catholic faith, in fact, is now uniquely privileged in being the only faith for which religious education is still funded at all. Far from being a disadvantaged minority, Catholics are now the largest religious group in the province by a wide margin and are arguably the least in need of special consideration or government largesse. Catholic families alone are guaranteed a choice of schools wherever they live in Ontario. Catholic school boards, though funded by all taxpayers, have an absolute right to reject non-Catholic children until grade 9, when “open access” (non-discriminatory admission) is supposed to apply. Catholic school boards have an absolute right to reject non-Catholic teachers at all grade levels -- a right they seem to exercise to the fullest.

Today Ontario is grappling with fiscal challenges of historic proportions. The province has a monstrously large deficit and a debt of such magnitude that it threatens to unravel the rich tapestry of social programs to which Ontarians have become accustomed. Over $10 billion is lost to interest on Ontario’s debt every year, representing an enormous opportunity cost. Debt servicing, in fact, has become Ontario’s third largest expenditure behind health and education. Debt rating agencies have already downgraded Ontario’s debt rating or have put the province on credit watch with a negative outlook -- developments that will lead to even higher debt servicing costs going forward. If corrective measures are not taken quickly, events will spiral out of our control.

To deal with their fiscal crisis, the Ontario government is now, somewhat arbitrarily and heavy-handedly, imposing wage restraint and fee rollbacks on doctors, teachers, and other public servants. Predictably, these groups are none too happy about that. Doctors, nurses, and teachers form the vanguard of what many Ontarians regard as the most important of our social programs: health and education. Before asking them to take it on the chin for the good of the province, the government had better be able to demonstrate that it has done what it can to minimize their pain by eliminating unnecessary expenditures first. We do not believe the Ontario government can demonstrate that -- particularly and perhaps most notably in the education sector.

Ontario currently funds four overlapping school systems where only two would do the job. Too many communities have both an under enrolled public and Catholic school that could be combined into the better of their two buildings to create a more cost effective, fully enrolled school. Hundreds of thousands of Ontario children are bussed past their nearest publicly funded school each day to attend another one farther away. Tens of thousands of high school students are being short changed academically, attending low enrolment high schools that cannot achieve the critical mass to offer the same level of program choice as their higher enrolment counterparts. Most often they cannot achieve that critical mass only because high school students in their communities are divided into Catholic and non-Catholic camps. All Ontarians, regardless of faith, pay a steep price to offer the members of an unjustly favoured faith a “choice” denied to all others. That price is paid in opportunity as well as in dollars.

In 21st century Ontario, Catholic school funding is not necessary. The exclusivity of that funding for the Catholic faith alone offends the equality guarantees of nearly every major human rights instrument to which Canada is a party. Catholic schools are also a significant expense that if eliminated would provide savings to blunt the effects of austerity on our truly essential programs. It is time for fair and fiscally responsible education reform.

Ontario's constitutional "obligation" to fund Roman Catholic separate schools is largely illusory, as it can be removed very quickly or can even be ignored. Quebec, Newfoundland, and Manitoba all removed or ignored very similar constitutional "obligations" before moving to a single public school system for each official language (English and French). It is time Ontario followed their example.

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Catholic Education Week 2012 -- More equal than others since 1841

5/6/2012

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Happy Catholic Education Week 2012 (May 6-11)! God bless you premier McGuinty, Tim Hudak, and Andrea Horwath for upholding the Catholic faith above all others before and under Ontario law. You uphold Catholic school funding in the face of fiscal austerity in health care and education. You uphold this funding in the face of wage freezes for public sector employees.

Ontarians can wait a little longer for essential medical services, go without them altogether, or pay for them themselves -- if they have the means. Hospital expansions and renovations can wait. Communities with both a half empty public and a half empty Catholic school can close one or the other and ship half their kids elsewhere to go to school, rather than combining the two student bodies into the best of the two buildings. School maintenance backlogs, already on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars in some school boards, can grow for a few more years yet before the schools actually start to fall down. Doctors, nurses, teachers, and other public sector employees can handle a few years of wage freezes or sub-inflation increases. Our cities can learn to do more with less.

The important thing here -- the really important thing -- is that all Ontario taxpayers continue to fund the promulgation of Catholic religious beliefs to the 80-90% of Catholic families who use Catholic schools but do not go to Church. God bless all of our Members of Provincial Parliament for setting proper priorities and for ignoring the majority wish to move to a single public school system for each official language. That takes a truly breathtaking combination of callousness, insensitivity, and political cowardice. In Ontario, we are fortunate to have politicians with all of these qualities in spades.

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Lighting a Fire -- Starting new chapters of OneSchoolSystem.org

Education in Ontario – A Critical Juncture

Ontario children win recognition of right to opt-out of religious courses and programs in publicly funded Catholic high schools

Op-Ed: The case for one public school system

Op-Ed: The case for one public school system

Living on another planet - while never leaving Toronto.

Equality - A Promise Unfulfilled.

Fiddling while Rome burns

Loving thy Neighbour

Publicly funded Catholic schools – A good idea in 2012?

Catholic Education Week 2012 -- More equal than others since 1841

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