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Faith-based school funding top election issue |
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Written by Catholic Register Staff
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Monday, 24 September 2007 |
 TORONTO - Government funding for religious education has emerged as the top issue facing Ontario voters in the 2007 provincial election campaign, according to recent surveys.
An Ipsos Reid poll released Sept. 15 found that 43 per cent of respondents placed the issue at the top of their list of concerns for the Oct. 10 election. Health care was second with 41 per cent, taxes was third with 19 per cent and the environment was right behind at 18 per cent.
Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty continued last week to hammer away at the proposal by his main rival, Conservative Leader John Tory, to extend public funding to religious schools that are willing to abide by the Ontario curriculum and teacher certification requirements.
He actually used a Catholic high school, St. Augustine in Markham, on Sept. 17 to criticize extending funding for religious education. Speaking to 160 students, he said Tory had used “bad judgment” in making the proposal. According to the Toronto Star, he later told reporters that his own Catholicism was a “private faith” and that he opposes church teaching on abortion, same-sex marriage and embryonic stem-cell research.
Tory defended his proposal, arguing that it is an issue of fairness. He said it was only right to provide government funding for religious schools other than Catholic since Catholics are already receiving public funding. He also said that the curriculum of these schools could be better controlled if they received public funding than if they were outside the system.
“I just find it ironic that Mr. McGuinty would stand in a fully funded Catholic school this morning and not recognize that we have other people that are being excluded from the public system of education,” the National Post quoted Tory as telling reporters in Cornwall.
The polls show that Ontarians are divided on the issue. A CTV News-Strategic Counsel poll released Sept. 17 said 71 per cent of those surveyed oppose Tory’s plan and 26 per cent support it. However, an Environics poll released Sept. 13 said 48 per cent support extending funding to religious schools while 44 per cent oppose it.
When Environics asked whether the government should withdraw funding from Catholic schools — as proposed only by the Green Party — 47 per cent said yes and 45 per cent said no. Environics reported that “a slim majority” of Catholics support extending public funding to other faith-based schools while Protestants are divided.
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