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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

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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The interest on Ontario's debt -- and how one educational reform could affect it.

2/18/2012

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The following interesting graphic shows very clearly where Ontario's money comes from and where it goes. On the red side of the graphic at the bottom, you can see the amount that goes up in smoke in interest on Ontario's debt: $10.3 billion in the past year alone. That figure grows every year Ontario runs a deficit.

The growth in interest payments must be offset with revenue increases, expenditure control (program cuts), or new debt. When budget balance is achieved through new debt, as it is now, Ontario's annual interest payments continue to grow. Ontario's interest rates will also rise in that scenario as the province's lenders demand higher rates to counter the risk of our diminishing creditworthiness.

The interest on Ontario's debt is money that could have gone into program spending or tax relief each and every year if the province had been running balanced budgets. It is a figure that the government's own 2011-12 budget projections predict will be $16.3 billion in 2017-18. The Drummond Report predicts the interest on Ontario's debt will reach $19.7 billion in 2017-18 under the status quo scenario.

Eliminating Catholic school funding and the massive duplication and overlap it entails will take a significant bite out of Ontario's deficit. It won't singlehandedly slay the deficit, but it is a reform that will help arrest and eventually reverse the growth in the amount of money lost to interest on Ontario's debt every year.

Ontario is paying for sectarian Catholic education, amongst other things, with borrowed money. It has been doing so for some time. As a result, the annual loss of provincial revenue to interest on our debt represents a significant opportunity cost. That loss is already impacting our ability to adequately fund the programs that are truly essential: those that alleviate pain and suffering, contribute to a well educated workforce, and help the genuinely disadvantaged among us. Government inaction on the deficit will only worsen those impacts.

The Ontario government has already rejected the most significant of the education reforms proposed in the Drummond Report. As Drummond warned, however, alternatives must then be proposed to produce equivalent savings.

We propose the amalgamation of Ontario's public and Catholic school systems into a single public school system for each official language. Ontario needs to embrace this idea now more than ever.

Click to enlarge at source (National Post, 2012-02-15).

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Now is the time to protect what is really important -- and to be willing to part with what is not.

2/12/2012

9 Comments

Friends. This Wednesday, Feb 15th, is the scheduled release date for the Drummond report. Mr. Drummond was tasked with examining all areas of government spending, identifying unnecessary and duplicate expenditures. It is hard to imagine that he could miss the massive duplication and overlap in our school system. We are confident that any competent and thorough examination of provincial programs would not fail to notice this and point it out.

Of greater concern to us than the possibility the waste in our education system could be overlooked is the relative certainty that Dalton McGuinty and company will summarily reject any recommendation to deal with it. He has already said, at least twice that we know of, that he will not even consider any recommendation to eliminate public funding for Catholic separate schools. That is unfortunate, as it all but ensures that austerity measures affecting our truly essential services will cut deeper than necessary. There will be unnecessary pain.

Eliminating public funding for Catholic schools would not genuinely hurt anyone. It would only result in Ontario Catholics having to take personal responsibility for the religious upbringing of their children. It would only result in them being treated the same as every one of us who is not an Ontario Catholic. Not eliminating that funding, however, will guarantee greater pain elsewhere -- probably in services that families cannot easily provide on their own.

Be alert for letter opportunities this week and beyond. If you’ve never written letters to the editor, now is a good time to start. See our letters page for ideas. The Drummond report will be very big news. Civil servants could face layoffs, wage freezes, unpaid days off, or outsourcing. They might be interested to know that as this happens, unnecessary spending on religious schools for a single favoured faith continues. Vested interests will be lobbying furiously as the government decides where the axe will fall. We need to point out the difference between essential and non-essential programs at every opportunity. We need to point out that public funding for Catholic schools is not essential!

Please rise to the challenge. It is time fairness and fiscal responsibility came to education in Ontario.

Education Equality in Ontario

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

The interest on Ontario's debt -- and how one educational reform could affect it.

Now is the time to protect what is really important -- and to be willing to part with what is not.

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