Why are more non-Catholic students going separate?
Some separate boards are enrolling non-Catholic students to bolster numbers
In this time of declining student numbers due to demographics, there exists a real but little discussed competition for students between public and separate school boards in Ontario. Student numbers go a long way to determining overall budget allotments from the Ministry of Education and the viability of individual schools. So maintaining healthy populations is crucial for all schools.
A troubling trend in Ontario shows that many separate boards are enrolling nonCatholic students in an attempt to bolster overall numbers. Recently released documents show that enrolment of students in separate schools without a baptismal certificate has increased by 18 per cent over the past four years. There are approximately 11,000 non-Catholic students in separate schools across the province.
This calls into question the purpose of the existence of a separate school system. If it exists to educate students in an immersive Catholic environment, why does it admit non-Catholics in significant numbers? Separate boards are clear in their mission statements. For example, the HWCDSB states the learning process should be “nurtured in the parish … anchored in the Catholic faith” and should take place “within the context of worship, sacraments, and the life of the Church is enhanced by the school community.” How do the non-Catholic students fit in the immersive religious environment?
Pat Daly, chair of the HWDCSB, had acknowledged that approximately 10 per cent of elementary students in the board are non-Catholic. Information I obtained from the ministry with regard to overall student population illustrates the increased enrolment of students without a baptismal certificate in this board. Between 2011 and 2016, the HWDSB experienced an overall decline of 4.8 per cent. Meanwhile, the HWDCSB experienced only a 2 per cent over this same period. Clearly, demographics alone cannot explain this discrepancy. It’s certainly not something the separate system wants people to know about. The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, led by Patrick Daly, sought legal advice in an attempt to keep this information private. One board issued an internal memo to staff indicating that they be “cautious and discrete” about the recruitment of nonCatholic students.
Clearly the separate system recognized the unseemly nature of recruiting students who do not adhere to the religious tenets upon which the system is founded. The separate system usually does everything it can to avoid the kind of spotlight that calls into question the existence of a school board based on religion. The Minister of Education has also refused to offer any comment on this contentious issue.
It is worth noting that the Ministry Of Education does not monitor this situation, so there is no oversight on the process of admitting non-Catholic students. The system admits non-Catholic students based, at least in part, on an interview process. It presents a ripe opportunity to select ‘strong’ candidates and reject those who may have learning disabilities or behavioural issues. This significant increase in enrolment of non-Catholics becomes even more troubling when one considers that the separate system operates as a ‘closed shop’ when it comes to hiring. You must be a Catholic in order to teach in the system, with a baptismal certificate and a letter from a parish priest. Non-Catholics need not apply.
It seems remarkable that in this day and age a publicly funded education system can have discriminatory hiring practices while at the same time it uses non-Catholic students to bolster over-all student population. The debate over the value of having a publicly funded religious system is not going away. Armed with the knowledge that separate schools are recruiting non-Catholics while employing catholic teachers only, people should be asking politicians on the election trail where they stand on this issue of a single publicly funded system of education.