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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.
33 Comments
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Todd
5/15/2012 08:18:48 am

What is being done to pressure the government to consider this option and what can Ontario citizens do to help?

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Heide
7/25/2012 06:34:57 am

I feel the same way and have for many years. I can't believe it has taken this long for this group to form! If there is a place for me to vote, I will be first in line for one school for french and one for english kids! Even better..make all schools immersion. Too ridiculous!!

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Jen
1/10/2013 07:55:24 am

I think it is very funny that you find the idea of 2 school boards based on religion abhorrent - but one based on culture/language is acceptable.

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Leonard Baak link
6/2/2012 01:31:33 am

Spread the word about this web site and the Facebook group. Encourage people to talk up the issue and do so yourself. Write to your MPPs. We'll hopefully be adding some resources for that soon. You can also join our supporter list by sending an email to support@OneSchoolSystem.org or just the mailing list by sending an email to mailinglist@OneSchoolSystem.org. If a supporter, indicate your name and address and whether or not you want to be on the mailing list in your email.

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Heide Wiedenfeld
6/4/2012 01:02:40 am

I am very much in favor of two school boards, one for each official language. It makes too much sense and steps need to be taken to begin implementation as soon as possible. I am now 52 years old. I grew up in Quebec, and only knew it like this when I was in school. Ontario needs to follow this path also. I have three children. The last of which is now in Grade Ten. It was and is still ridiculous to watch the waste of schoolbusses criss-crossing to pick up and deliver the various neighbourhood children: each off to their own (different) school. Finally a group has been formed to back up this obvious best way to fund schooling for all of our children. Yah!

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Lynn
6/6/2012 05:02:34 am

The timing is perfect for the merger to take place!

Ontario schools are on the brink of a fall teacher's strike or "work-to-rule" - contracts expire August 31st and no resolution is in sight.

Parents do not want a strike or "work-to-rule" situation.

The Liberals could put forth a bill to amalgamate the two boards (effective September 2013) - and use the excess money found from the amalgamation to negotiate with the teachers unions this year.

The NDP can support the bill because it will be used to settle amicably with the largest unions in the province.

A "win-win" that will be embraced by far more than 50% of Ontarians!

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Chris Shaw
6/6/2012 10:15:37 am

Let's have #endontarioschoolsegregation go viral on Twitter!

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Prashanth
10/19/2012 12:58:28 pm

I support one school system,We are in 21st Century.All deserve to study in any school irrespective of religion and belief.Children will learn learn to live in multicultural environment from the very beginning and they are sure to excel in competent environment.Hope this will implemented at the earliest.

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Kate
11/14/2012 10:56:13 am

I am not a person of religious faith, I do not have children in school, and I am not a supporter of Catholic schools, but I question the alleged tax savings of merging the two school systems. The students in Catholic schools aren't going to "evaporate" if their funding ceases: nearly all will transfer to the publicly funded system, for affordability reasons. The net result will be that Ontario will have the same number of students to educate as it does now in both systems, will require the same number of classrooms, books, and facilities, the same number of support and teaching staff, and so forth: from where are the savings going to be realised? The handful of trustees in communities outside of Toronto, where trustees are given an honoraria of $10,000 - $16,000 per year? I am all for one areligious school system, but I have seen no proof that it will result in substantial tax savings; in fact, given the Catholic Board's history of frugality, such a merger could actually increase education spending in Ontario.

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11/14/2012 11:13:51 am

Hi Kate: We will make a post on that subject in the near future, but I'd start by cautioning you about your assumptions of Catholic board frugality. In some areas they may be a little more willing to make hard decisions such as closing schools in declining enrolment areas, but almost without exception, the smaller the school board and the more geographically distributed its schools and students, the higher the funding on a per capita basis (total funding divided by total enrolment). In Ottawa for example, the English Catholic, French Catholic, and French public school boards receive 5%, 22% and 38% higher funding than the Ottawa English public board. That pattern of relative funding holds in most areas of the province.

This is not favouritism. This is the Ministry of Education recognizing – right in the funding formula – that smaller school boards are unable to realize the same efficiencies and economies as their larger counterparts in the same area. Catholic and French boards are always smaller.

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Kate
11/14/2012 03:15:06 pm

Hi Leonard,

Thanks for your reply. The difference in funding levels is based on a Board's tax revenue, the result being a not-very-subtle sleight of hand by the government. As some formerly Catholic ratepayers have chosen to support public schools, the result was a provincial funding formula which attempts the equivalent of tax redistribution, which really nullifies the concept of allowing ratepayers to choose to which school system their taxes will be directed. While this is irritating as a matter of principle, it does support my earlier comment that regardless of whether we have one school system, or two or three for that matter, the net number of students in need of publicly funded education will not diminish through the establishment of a single school system in Ontario; therefore, the same numbers of teachers will be employed, same number of student spaces required, and so forth.

My opposition to Catholic and funded religious schools isn't based on a tax-savings argument; rather, it is my view that the tax-funded state should never become entangled in any religious or theistic affiliation whatsoever. For the state to do so with my money is the equivalent of forcing me to attend church and contribute to the offering plate. I acknowledge and defend an individual's right to believe in and worship an "invisible man in the sky"; however, I don't support that my taxes should in any way ever support that religious practice. Schools should be free of all religious affiliation and influence, and churches, synagogues, and mosques should be taxed as would any other business. Religious institutions should be of no consequence to me as a ratepayer, either through tax funding or tax exemption.

Succinctly stated, I support your drive for one school system, but it isn't going to generate a substantial tax savings; however, it will free our education system from the fetters of dogma and other forms of gobbledegook that detract from what should be its sole purpose: higher learning.

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7/5/2013 03:57:50 am

Could someone give some history on how and when Newfoundland, Quebec, and Manitoba removed their catholic schools?

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