When Leonard Baak’s son hit kindergarten age, his local public school in Stittsville, Ont., was so full it couldn’t even add any portables. So all the other parents in his neighbourhood did the natural thing and dusted off their Roman Catholic baptism certificates and got their children into the local Catholic school.
Mr. Baak was a “churchgoing Christian” but not Catholic — which at least one parent needs to be if a child can be admitted to Catholic elementary. His only other choice was to put his four-year-old on a 45-minute bus ride or enroll him in private school at a hefty price.
I pay as much tax as they do
He tried everything to get his son to the local Catholic school, even seeing a priest about becoming a Roman Catholic. That process would take a year and he wasn’t willing to wait, especially as his daughter approached school age too.
“I put them in private school. So it took $35,000 [in tuition over two years] to escape an overcrowded situation my Catholic neighbours could escape for free,” he said this week.
“I thought, ‘This is wrong, I should not have to do this for access to greater education. I pay as much tax as they do.’”
Andrew Philips for National PostOliver Erazo's son Jonathan shouldn't have to attend any religious liturgies or retreats at Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School in Brampton under provisions in the provincial Education Act.
So began Mr. Baak’s lobby for one publicly funded school system in Ontario. Now, the decade-old movement is gaining steam in light of recent changes in publicly funded Catholic school systems, especially high schools non-Catholics can attend.
Another victory came this week, when an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled Oliver Erazo, a parent in Brampton, Ont., had been unlawfully denied an exemption that would free his high school-age son from attending mass, religion classes and other religion-related events.
A recent campaign by the Ontario Catholic Trustees Association has also drawn criticism for appearing to promote Catholic schools in the province as superior publicly funded schools.
Then there are the broader societal shifts that have found their way into education legislation across Canada and clearly do not jibe with Catholic teachings.
Monday, the Alberta legislature rejected a bill that would make it mandatory for schools to allow students to start gay-straight alliances (GSAs), but its sponsor, Liberal MLA Kent Hehr, believes it has enough public support to succeed in the near future.
Leah Hennel / Postmedia NewsLiberal MLA Kent Hehr.
Last fall, one Alberta Catholic school board rejected renewed calls to let students be immunized against HPV in school, because it feared the vaccines would tempt children into sexual activity.
As enrollment numbers in public schools across the country continue to decline and public opinion remains staunchly split on the issue, proponents of defunding the Catholic school system believe they are finally on the brink of a breakthrough, even in the face of a strong contingent of Catholic system defenders.
“It’s an issue we’re thinking a lot about, the future of Catholic public school funding, and I think Catholics themselves are thinking about it too,” said Justin Trottier, a spokesman for the atheist Centre for Inquiry.
“I think they’re witnessing the dilution of the Catholic identity within their own school system.”
He points to the tussles over GSAs in Ontario and the Erazo case show Catholic schools “don’t have full authority” to ensure their students get a religious education.
I think they’re witnessing the dilution of the Catholic identity
“If I were in the shoes of these Catholic trustees, I’d be kind of concerned that at some point the parents and the Catholic ratepayers are not going to say, ‘Why are we continuing to support a system where we don’t have the kind of controls we could have if we opted to go the private school route?’”
While Catholics declare their faith on their property tax forms, thus supporting their education system, taxpayers of all or no creeds pay for publicly funded schools.
Though some parents send their children for religious reasons, most just want their children to go to a good school — one that is close by, has good teachers and a solid track record, Mr. Baak said. He believes a one-school system makes financial sense in Ontario, a province that is paying $1-billion a year to service its debt.
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With Ontarians buckling under new austerity measures, such as hydro rate increases, they will wonder why they are paying for four school boards when they could amalgamate into one, saving building, staffing and administrative costs, Mr. Baak said.
Marino Gazzola, president of the Ontario Catholic Schools Trustee Association, believes Mr. Baak is misguided.
He says the shift to a one-school system shift would be chaotic and cost more money, rather than producing savings. It would also demand an overhaul of the school funding formula, which is per-student.
That push for the one-school system is always going to be there
Mr. Gazzola concedes the Catholic system has experienced “a little bit of pressure” in recent years, but says it has a number of organizations built around it to “fight for it, to promote it, to protect it.”
“We’re going to have to continue to do our work to be vigilant and diligent because that push for the one-school system is always going to be there,” he said.
Chris Roussakis/National PostLeonard Baak was a "churchgoing Christian" but not Catholic — which at least one parent needs to be if a child can be admitted to Catholic elementary.
“It picks up speed and then it dies back down, and it picks up speed whenever an issue comes forward, whether it’s an issue arising out of the court like this last case or whether it was the GSAs two years ago.
“We want [the Catholic system] to be there for the next generations just like it was there for my generation and the ones before us.”
Ted Paszek, the Alberta-based president of the Canadian Catholic School Trustees’ Association, says Catholic education in Canada is “very healthy and robust and flourishing.”
“There are challenges to Catholic education on various fronts of course,” he said. “The one school movement hasn’t had much legs here in Alberta or Saskatchewan. But the challenges are present and we’re aware of them and encounter them as faithfully as we can.”
One-school system advocates will have their work cut out for them when it comes to finding political will. Ontario has a strong Catholic lobby — so strong it hosted a well-attended mass at Queen’s Park last month, at which Premier Kathleen Wynne, an out-of-the-closet politician, was blessed.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank GunnOntario Premier Kathleen Wynne responds during question period in the Ontario Legislature on Toronto on Tuesday April 8, 2014.
In January, Ms. Wynne told a Catholic school audience “we need to do everything in our power to strengthen the system that exists – and that means having a strong Catholic education system,” as well as protecting the others.
Whether or not the wholehearted government support has anything to do with bad memories of Conservative John Tory’s failed bid for power on the platform of funding religious schools, Mr. Gazzola said Catholic organizations are glad to have it.
But there is also a perception Catholic trustees have made risky sacrifices in the changes they have made to maintain strong relationships with government.
Parents have expressed displeasure with “milquetoast trustees” whose cooperation with the provinces has threatened Catholic teaching in schools, said Teresa Pierre, president of an Ontario Catholic parents’ group, Parents as First Educators.
Andrew Philips photo for National PostKyle Naylor, pictured with his daughter Haley, has become a resource for parents seeking a religious exemption for their children who attend Catholic schools.
Andrew Philips photo for National Post
For story by Andrew Philips
“When trustee elections happen this October, we need to elect Catholic trustees who will use their legal power to say ‘no’ to the government when they overstep their boundaries (as with the Ontario GSA bill, Bill 13) or object to union leadership when they endorse behavior that goes against Catholic teaching,” she wrote in an email to the National Post Friday.
“Catholic beliefs are also being opposed from within the system itself.”
She points to Catholic boards voting to allow HPV vaccinations and Catholic teachers having official representation in the World Pride Parade in June (her group “resents the false appearances it gives about what the Church believes about homosexuality”).
Kyle Naylor, a parent in Midland, Ont., who has been helping non-religious parents of Catholic high school students get exemptions that are not typically advertised by the schools, said Catholic schools would be having an easier time if the government hadn’t passed open access legislation.
“To preserve their faith, I don’t dispute that as a valid aspiration,” he said, of the fervent protection of the Catholic school system. “But pay for it yourself.”
National Post
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