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Penguin

Gripes about our Catholic school system

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6 Comments
by
Penguin
, 02-18-2010 at 12:23 PM (2181 Views)
Okay... I'm generally opposed to the idea that we have a taxpayer-funded religious school system in my province, but a couple of specific things have been really bugging me lately.

First: when we got our property tax assessment, there was a new form inside... something like this (not my school board's form, but similar). Here's what it's for:
  • legally, property taxes from non-Catholics can't go to Catholic schools. This includes cases where a property is jointly owned by a Catholic and a non-Catholic.
  • however, Catholic tenants can direct their portion of their building's education property taxes toward the Catholic board.
  • these sorts of forms are an attempt to circumvent this. Say you're married to a Catholic. You can "lease" your house to your spouse (for a dollar a year, according to the form I received), who then can put all your education property taxes toward the Catholic board.
The forms make this out to be a formality with no effect other than where your money goes, but I don't buy that. There has to be other ramifications, doesn't there? A lease is a lease.

Meanwhile, I got to thinking. I noticed that in a lot of places, there's not a whole lot of interest in the Catholic school board, especially the French Catholic boards. Often, candidates just get acclaimed. Occasionally, seats stay vacant. I thought to myself (though not really seriously), "hmm... it might be actually possible to get an atheist onto the Catholic school board. That could be useful if you wanted to, say, disband the Catholic board and fold it into the public board."

So, on a lark, I went to check on the criteria for school board candidates and discovered that it's prohibited by law for a non-Catholic to be a Catholic board trustee. On top of that, it's also illegal for a non-Catholic to even vote in an election for a Catholic trustee.

This means that the poor shlub who signs one of those forms for his spouse so that their kids (for reasons that escape me) can go to a Catholic school can't even cast his vote in the elections that will determine how his kid's school board will be run.

I think that Catholic schools are unfair to begin with, but this seems to me to be extra unfair. Not to mention a breach of our Charter equality rights.

There - I'm done ranting. For now.

Updated 02-18-2010 at 02:52 PM by Penguin

Categories
‎ Atheism , ‎ Religion , ‎ Christianity

Comments

  1. Penguin's Avatar
    Just a note: really, the whole "Catholic school supporter" thing is a bit of a game. No matter how much property tax money a school board receives, Catholic or public, the school board's revenue gets topped up by the provincial government so that it meets the province's funding formula.

    The actual effect of designating yourself as a Catholic school supporter is that it lets you send your kids to a Catholic school. Also, I suppose it can be construed to make the Catholic board look good on paper, since it'll make the same budget with less provincial subsidy. What it doesn't do is affect how much money the Catholic or public board receives.
  2. Demojen's Avatar
    Could you provide for me what laws exist that forbid non-catholic be on a catholic school board?
    If it exists in anything it will probably be in legislation which can be changed.

    You can actually apply to have legislation thrown out.

    In this case you might have grounds to argue that this legislation unfairly protects that particular school board from the scrutiny of the people who live in that area.
    In a secular country, held strong by democratic interests, a board insured by elitist propaganda and/or legislation that only serves to protect itself from future scrutiny flies in the face of democracy.

    The board and it's choices should be based on the welfare of the children and not to protect the interests of religion in and of itself.
  3. B Roodnick's Avatar
    You must be in Ontario. As I recall the Separate School System is fully funded as a result of constitutional requirements deriving from the history of Ontario. What took place in Ontario is that the original school system that was set up by Protestant Christian Missionaries in about 1786, was eventually nationalized and became the Public School System. The Catholic School system, now known as the Separate School system was afforded some constitutional protection (From the British North America Act of 1867) which eventually resulted in full funding for that system. Ironically, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim schools are not funded at all. Ya can't but help wondering if the Protestants...having lost their schools and having to start again, feel a little hard done by, given the history of the process.
  4. Penguin's Avatar
    Sorry about not responding - I didn't check for comments until just now.

    Not all Catholic education in Ontario is constitutionally required. Funding for high schools was only brought in under Premier Bill Davis in the 1980s. And changing the constitutional requirement would just be a matter of agreement between the province and the Federal government; no other provinces would need to be involved at all.

    Demojen: it's in the Education Act. One of the requirements to run for election to a board is that you're eligible to vote for that board, and one of the requirements to vote for a Catholic board is that you be Catholic yourself.
  5. Penguin's Avatar
    Sorry about not responding - I didn't check for comments until just now.

    Not all Catholic education in Ontario is constitutionally required. Funding for high schools was only brought in under Premier Bill Davis in the 1980s. And changing the constitutional requirement would just be a matter of agreement between the province and the Federal government; no other provinces would need to be involved at all.

    Demojen: it's in the Education Act. One of the requirements to run for election to a board is that you're eligible to vote for that board, and one of the requirements to vote for a Catholic board is that you be Catholic yourself.
  6. JersonInsurens's Avatar
    Hey there. I'm one of the catholic school boys who was disillusioned by the way they run their system. I will jump to the conclusion that christianity is an old-thought, outdated mode of thinking, and running a system. Ineffective to the different needs of the individual and society.