Citizen Columns

Citizen Columns >> Answer (September 14th, 2007)

Question

What is your view on the issue of funding for faith based schools?

Answer

This is a complex political question, and as such there are going to be conflicting positions among religious people of good will, even among Catholics. There is certainly no "Orthodox Christian" view. But I have a few observations.

First, this is not a theoretical question. Catholic schools have been functioning in Ontario for more than 160 years, and they continue to provide education to a huge proportion of students in Ontario. Such a system can't be dismantled without major social disruption. Demand for this education is high, and not only among Catholics. Many Catholic primary schools don't have enough spaces and Catholics are then given priority. I am aware of Orthodox Christian parents whose children were refused admission to Catholic primary schools simply because they didn't have a Catholic baptismal certificate. Perhaps these successful schools need funding to expand, because as long as the system remains publicly funded, then there should be full access to anyone who wishes to send their children to these schools, regardless of whether they are Catholic.

Second, McGuinty is arguing to keep the status quo, but in our multicultural society you can predict that change will have to come sooner or later. Regardless of history and current practice, it seems there are two alternative positions to ensure fairness: either all faith-based schools should be funded or none of them. But for decades now society has been drifting steadily in a secular direction, so it's hard to imagine the public endorsing more funding for faith-based schools. For the same reason it's only a matter of time before provincial funding for Catholic schools dries up and the public school system is fully secularized. That's just one more of those realities that believers in Ontario will need to come to terms with and adjust. That's happening now in Quebec, but of course in the US that has been the norm for over two-hundred years. Faith-based schools there are thriving, and I am sure they will in Ontario as well, with or without public funding.

Father John Jillions