Everyone who objects to publicly-funded Catholic schools will agree with Joshua Ostroff’s arguments against them in the article “It’s Time To Excommunicate Public Catholic Schools”:
The kids are back in class and the new year is upon us. In light of the shocking honesty from Catholic school trustees in Edmonton and Toronto just before the break, it’s perfect timing to make a resolution to achieve equality (and fiscal responsibility) by finally ending our publicly funded separate school system.
Ostroff goes on to reiterate what people have been saying for years:
residents of Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan shouldn’t be forced to pay for a Catholic school system that doesn’t ground education in the fundamental separation of church and state.
He gives an example of how much residents of Ontario and Calgary, Alberta are paying
In Ontario, for example, it’s about $7 billion while in Calgary the Catholic school board gets $470 million to the public school board’s $1.1 billion.
and comes to the same conclusion that Civil Rights in Public Education, Inc. (CRIPE), OneSchoolSystem.org, http://myexemption.com and Canadian Atheist came to many years ago.
It’s time to defund and merge the remaining separate Catholic school systems in Canada because it’s inequitable, [and] discriminatory . . . .
Yes, it’s time to defund the remaining separate Catholic school systems in Canada, but merging them is not the solution. It’s time to create a single, publicly-funded secular school system in Alberta and Saskatchewan and a single, publicly-funded secular school system for each official language in Ontario.
The Green Party of Ontario had it as a plank in the last election and suggested savings of 1Billion$. Considering that federally they also have a Guaranteed Living Income that would pull 1MM Canadain children out of poverty, perhaps we could kill two birds with one stone here in Ontario.
One school system, period.
French doesn’t require a separate administration or separate buildings.
Fuck segregation. One public board is enough.
The guaranteed living income may be the best idea to support Canadian families as we enter the new world of computers, automation and international imports.
Spend more money on our school system as well. If we build a modern secular society here in the North, the rest of the world have another good example to follow.
Resist old ideas from the failing old cultures. Improving Canada is a big enough project. Support Canadian Atheists as they try to rescue mentally ill refugees from religious psychic torment.