Catholic schools hold a privileged place

RE: Setting the record straight on Catholic schools (Aug. 23)

Given that Pat Daly — chair of Hamilton’s separate schools — would either lose his position or have to resign if amalgamation of Catholic and public schools occurs, it is necessary for him to defend the status quo, irrespective of the crystal clear inequities. He tries to fudge numbers but just eliminating duplicate services, like busing and administration for example, would be a huge savings. Of course, that’s not really what he and other Catholic apologists are worried about. They want to preserve their “catholicity”, as if they represented the only religious denomination that matters in our multicultural Canada.

Separate schools today hold a privileged position in education, offered to no other faith. In fact, no other publicly funded institution in Canada has a branch to serve and hire only Catholics (or Jews or Muslims). The idea of having a Hamilton Catholic Police Service, housed in separate quarters hiring only officers with pastoral letters is absurd. Yet this very same logic is continually recycled to argue for a separate, publicly funded education system. It is simply a matter of time before Ontario follows other provinces and eliminates public funding to Catholic schools. And not only will Catholicism survive but it will be better served when our students are not divided and removed by their parents’ theologies. Walt Michalsky, Ancaster