Ontario needs its religious schools

Parents want this option for children, Deani Van Pelt says.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has come out with some bad advice that would disproportionately hurt Ottawa.

Seizing on recent media reports that up to 11,000 non-Catholic students — most of them in Ottawa — attend Catholic schools in Ontario, the ETFO has called for the elimination of Ontario’s Catholic school system. If the union had its way, the 11,000 non-Catholic students would either be forced to return to their local secular public school or foot the bill themselves to attend a religious school.

To follow the ETFO’s advice would put Ontario outside Canadian norms.

Let’s make two facts clear: The funding of religious schools in Canada is not an anomaly; and great numbers of parents choose these schools even when their family’s religious beliefs aren’t the same as the school’s.

Six provinces, from British Columbia to Quebec, currently offer funding for religious K-12 schools. Only the four Atlantic Provinces do not. And funds transfer without confirmation of a precise match between the students’ religious beliefs and those professed by their chosen school.

In British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec, parents desiring a religiously oriented education for their children can find it in an independent school. In these provinces, qualifying independent schools receive about 50 or 60 per cent of the per-student annual funding amount allocated for public school students. The independent religious schools meet provincial curriculum standards, generally hire provincially certified teachers, and top up their funding gap with donations and/or tuition. Government funding is not contingent on whether the student’s religious identity matches that of the school.

Alberta and Saskatchewan fund the widest variety of religious school options. Qualifying religiously oriented independent schools are funded at 50 to 70 per cent of the local public school per-student annual funded rate. These provinces also offer fully funded Roman Catholic public school systems.

Ontario funds only one type of religiously oriented school: fully funded Roman Catholic separate schools. It should hardly be a surprise, given the tuition barriers for all other religious choices, that Ontario parents desiring a religiously oriented education for their children would turn to the Catholic system.

So, to be clear, funding religious schools is the norm across Canada.

Now consider the choices parents across Canada are making for their children. In the three provinces with the highest share of students in independent schools, well over half of British Columbia and Manitoba independent school enrolments are in religious schools, and onethird of Quebec’s are. Parents are proactively making the choice for religious schooling for their kids.

In Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, a smaller share of students attends independent schools and yet the trend holds — about half of the independent school enrolments are in religiously oriented schools. In addition, at least one in every four students in these provinces also attends a fully funded Roman Catholic schools.

The conclusion is inescapable: Parents in Canada are choosing religiously oriented schools for their children. Often it means paying tuition. For some it means choosing an independent school, for others a Catholic separate school. In many cases, it means their faith orientation might not precisely match the school they choose. But the bottom line is, despite the barriers, a significant share of parents in Canada desires and chooses a religiously oriented education for their children.

Rather than bashing Ontario’s Catholic schools, the ETFO might want to stop and consider why parents are choosing religious education for their children. The union might do well to take seriously the parental search for affordable education alternatives. Parents know that one-size-fits-all doesn’t work in education. And six Canadian provinces already know that the straitjacket education-funding model proposed by the ETFO does not work.

No, religiously oriented K-12 schools in Ontario should not be penalized for welcoming students of faiths other than their own. On the contrary, Ontario should welcome parents making the choices they believe are best for their children. And maybe one day, the province will be ready to go a step further by funding an even more diverse array of school systems, as half of Canada’s provinces do.