|
Tories, faith groups seek changes to school funding
By ANDY LEVY-AJZENKOPF
Staff Reporter
TORONTO - Ontario’s
Conservative Opposition education critic is on a mission to revamp what
he calls the province’s discriminatory faith-based education
funding system.
Late last year, Frank Klees, MPP for Oak Ridges, tabled a petition in
the legislature calling for the Liberal government to finally end the
province’s practice of publically funding
both Roman Catholic schools and secular schools equally.
“We call on the Ontario
legislature to pass legislation to provide equitable funding in respect
of all faith-based schools in Ontario
without religious discrimination and without any reduction in funding for
public education, with accountability requirements and standards in place
to ensure that the public interest is safeguarded,” read the
petition.
Jewish schools and schools of other faiths receive no public funding,
forcing parents to pay prohibitive tuition fees in order to educate their
children, while the government continues using their tax dollars to fund
Roman Catholic schools.
The province argues it has a clear mandate to obey the 1867
Constitution, which sought to protect existing rights for denominational
schools of the time, requiring Ontario
to maintain a publicly funded Roman Catholic system.
In 1999, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) ruled this
funding was discriminatory, violating Canada’s obligations
under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, saying
the need to protect Roman Catholic funding was now out of context with
modern times.
The UNHRC censured the province again on this issue in a 2005 report.
Klees said the Liberal government continues its unwillingness to
discuss this issue.
“I can tell you that I have had no response from [Ontario
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne],” Klees said. “I’ve
questioned the minister specifically relating to these petitions...
it’s very clear that this Liberal government is not prepared to
consider this.”
Klees believes it’s an issue that needs closure and will become
more important as the provincial election approaches on Oct. 10.
“There’s no doubt that this will be an election
issue,” Klees said. “[The current petition] is only one in a
series of many that I and some of my colleagues have presented through
the official Opposition over the last year and a half.”
Klees said he and Conservative Opposition leader, John Tory, continue
to conduct stakeholder meetings to determine what a fair education
funding policy would look like under a Tory government.
Wynne could not be reached for comment.
In reply to CJN queries, a spokesperson from the minister’s
office issued the following response, indicating it was presented in the
legislature in reply to Klees’ petition.
“The government has no intention of funding private religious
schools. Our government recognizes the right of parents to choose
alternative forms of education for their children... however, our clear
focus and our government’s priority continues to be introducing
measures that significantly improve the publicly funded system.”
It went on to say that the government will continue to maintain its
constitutional school funding obligations.
Many groups have been fighting for equitable funding for years.
In 2004, the Multi-Faith Coalition for Equal Funding of Religious
Schools (MFC), a grassroots movement representing Jews, Sikhs, Muslims
and an assortment of non-Catholic Christians, drafted a detailed proposal
suggesting how to extend funding to religious schools.
The province’s education ministry acknowledged receipt of the
proposal, but Gerrard Kennedy, then education
minister, never responded to the MFC.
According to Gila Martow,
an outspoken representative with Parents for Equality in Education
Funding (PEEF), an affiliate of the MFC, there’s been little to no
response from the province since, despite repeated attempts at contact.
The MFC recently sent an invitation to Wynne to participate in an
upcoming MFC symposium on April 16, regarding the issue.
“Her office said they received the invitation and are ‘looking
at her schedule’ now to see if she can attend. But we still
haven’t been able to arrange any meetings or speak to her,” Martow said.
Martow said PEEF respects the minister and
doesn’t blame Wynne for the current situation, but added that the
time to address “the elephant in the room” has come.
Similarly, Ontario’s
Canadian Jewish Congress, in a joint effort with the various UJA
Federations of Ontario, has also been hard at work addressing this issue.
Steven Shulman, regional director of the
CJC, noted that for the last two years his team has consulted with the
province’s Jewish day school leaderships, diverse faith groups,
government officials and many other stakeholders on how to move forward
on education funding.
“This is a primary advocacy issue for this community and a vital
time leading up to a [provincial] election,” Shulman
said. “We want to find the approach that gives us the best
opportunity for funding, while... being good public policy for Ontario.”
Based on the feedback received, Shulman’s
team drafted a set of guiding principles going forward.
In a nutshell, the CJC is pushing for Jewish and other faith-based
schools to be adopted as full participants in the public school sphere,
suggesting their faith curricula and values could only add to the
Canadian mosiac.
“Bringing Catholic schools into the public sphere grew the
public sphere,” Shulman said. “If
we want to grow public education again, a very important way to do it,
would be to bring the remaining variety of faith-based schools that are
willing to meet appropriate accountability standards, into the public
sphere.”
Shulman acknowledged this as a
work-in-progress, but said other groups have been receptive to the idea.
|
