Faith-Based Schools

It was good to see my old fastball rival Bill Vrebosch on the front page as he kicked off his campaign to become our next member of the provincial legislature. Bill is a no-nonsense, hard-working man who can also do a little vocalizing as he spins songs at local dances. But Bill is going to have to sing from a different song sheet than his leader if he wants my vote.

Tory, the leader of the Conservatives, whose name appeared in the same edition, was promising to review the provincial funding for faith-based schools. He promised to appoint former Premier, Bill Davis, to do the review. Bill Davis did the taxpayers a great disservice in the dying days of his reign in Ontario by creating the separate school system. The duplication of schooling has, and continues to cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in a duplication of educational services. Davis thought that if a religious sect wanted to teach their beliefs, along with the approved general curriculum, they ought to be allowed to collect taxes and share in the public purse.

In an age when we are at war with a branch of a religious sect, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Tory thinks we should be promoting religions, as do several other provinces. His argument that other provinces do this carries no weight. Just because someone makes a mistake is no reason to do the same thing. In fact, we ought to have learned long ago that far too many conflicts have had their basis in religious differences. Muslims and Christians have been going at each other since the crusades and although George Bush was corrected by his publicists at the start of the War on Terror, his claim that it was another crusade was not too far off the mark.

If Bill’s Conservatives think they are going to garner more votes in the ethically diverse Greater Toronto Area because of the promise to fund schools for the various religious sects, they may end up with fewer votes than they think. One of the fears that many people had with the old Reform Party was that they were a right-wing religious party. Harper’s federal Conservatives have tried to stay away from the religious issues for the most part, but their background does seep through on occasions. Thinking voters are going to realize that we should be teaching religion in public schools only as history and literature.

These same voters will also realize that unless we want to further fragmentize our society, we need to learn about other belief systems, but not to promote them as being superior to other beliefs. In an increasing secular society, more and more people are seeing that religion and politics should be kept separate. The recent elections in Turkey highlighted the struggle between the Muslims and the secularists who fear a faith-based government that could slip into a Taliban-like state. That the Pope of the Roman Catholics should announce that his version of Christianity was the only true faith, no doubt waved a red flag in the face of various protestant sects. It may have even roused some Catholics to question again the infallibility of the man called Pope.

With these, and other news-making events all around us, why would any thinking leader want to promote more divisions in the electorate? I guess I already answered that question in the asking. If parents want to indoctrinate their children in a belief system, then they ought to do this at home or in their religion-funded (tax-exempt) buildings. Better still, let the children decide for themselves when they fully understand the implications of the various faith or spirituality teachings. Public schools ought to focus on the Arts and Sciences, not on the mysticism of faith-based teachings.

It will be interesting to see if the Liberals rise to the bait of faith-base schooling, but somehow I think they know better. Their supporters in the separate school system will fear an erosion of their funding as the tax dollars are split once again, while public school system supporters will see their school taxes increase again. Of course, the Dalton Gang could always promise not to raise taxes in a faith-based school system. And we all know how well politicians keep their election promises.