View topic - John Tory wants to secularize religious schools :: Free Dominion - Principled Conservative - Party and Canadian Politics

Premier rejects Tory's all-faith funding plan

Issue of financing religious schools marks clear difference between Liberals, Conservatives

Aug 21, 2007 04:30 AM

Kerry Gillespie
Queen's Park Bureau

OTTAWA–Public schools are a big part of Ontario's success as a multicultural society, and Ontarians don't want schools that segregate children according to their religion, Premier Dalton McGuinty says.

"You don't improve a community's schools, you don't build community when you take half a billion (dollars) out of publicly funded schools to fund private religious schools as the Conservatives are promising to do," McGuinty told a conference of 1,700 municipal delegates.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario was once reliably Progressive Conservative in its leanings, but McGuinty's comments yesterday received loud applause.

If elected premier on Oct. 10, Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory plans to spend up to $400 million to extend taxpayer funding to all faith-based schools that teach the Ontario curriculum, follow standardized testing and have accredited teachers.

McGuinty opposes this. With an election less than two months away, this is one of the most controversial issues and one of the few, so far, that clearly define a difference between Tory and McGuinty.

Tory said that his policy is a complex issue and one the Liberals are not fairly representing.

His policy would allow the 50,000 children now being taught in unfunded and unregulated faith-based schools to join the public system. Rather than divide children, it would unite them through a common curriculum, he said.

"My policy is about making sure every child ... has the same opportunity," Tory said. A public school education shouldn't depend on whether children are Catholic or of another faith, he added.

Ontario is the only province where taxpayers pay 100 per cent of the costs for students who attend Catholic schools and none of the costs for students attending Islamic, Jewish or other faith-based schools. Other provincial governments either partly fund all faith-based schools that meet their guidelines, or fund none of them.

At a time when the province is more diverse than ever, it's "fundamentally unfair" to fund Catholic schools exclusively, Tory said. Many Ontarians agree, but rather than extending what the Catholics get to all faiths, many would prefer to end public funding of the Catholic system instead.

McGuinty opposes both. He doesn't defend school funding for just one religion as fair, but he says the way schools are funded is rooted in Ontario's history. Progress is "strengthening the system we have inherited," he told reporters.

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 5:20 pm Post subject:

Isn't that all we need! Publicly funded madras's in Ontario. Barf

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Truth Is Treason In The Empire Of Lies

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 6:10 pm Post subject:

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 6:19 pm Post subject:

Concan wrote

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 6:41 pm Post subject:

McGuinty extolling the success of the public school system? My wife is from the US and not that the US has any virtues, but she doesn't want my children anywhere near public school. If public school is so successful why is homeschooling and private schooling a growing reality in Canada? I agree they are a success at pushing the multi-cult; but forgive me - I thought school was about TEACHING our children something?

Forgive me again, because now I am thoroughly confused by Tory's position. What does he mean by secularizing the school system and uniting them? Does he mean he wants to regulate and fully fund religious schools, but allow them to teach the curriculum from their point of view?
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The opinions I have just expressed are my own. The owners of Free Dominion are not coercing any particular opinion from me.

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 6:53 pm Post subject:

If all the Parents with Kids in private, religious and home schools suddenly decided to put them all in public school the impact would be huge.

All people with Kids involved in non public schools want is some kind of return on all those school taxes they pay.

Let the Parents use the money for curriculum material or to pay a portion of whatever school they choose to send them to.

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 7:01 pm Post subject:

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 7:07 pm Post subject:

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 7:24 pm Post subject:

Connie said

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 7:27 pm Post subject:

I can't believe he has the GALL to want to dictate curriculum for faith-based schools! What is the point of even calling it a faith-based school if they have to teach the same material as secular schools?

Tory is worse than McGuinty!
_________________
"...single men must have access to donor eggs and “gestational carriers.” - David Johnston, Governor General Appointee
(The man Stephen Harper calls "the best of Canada")

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 7:38 pm Post subject:

Posted: 08/ 21/ 07 7:39 pm Post subject:

Our public schools in Windsor are being Islamistfied with mullahs and imans inspecting the schools to met Muslim standards.
What ever happened to the 1963 Supreme Court ruling that yanked religion out of schools?
No religious schools what so ever, as it is not what they are not taught but what they are taught that frightens me.
Religion is a personal matter and should remain as such.

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