Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Vail
Catholic schools, apart from a single private school, are public schools. They are funded the same way. They take kids with all the needs. If schools have space, they cannot turn any students away. By and large, Catholic schools have operated better in fiscal terms than their public counterparts.
Public Catholic schools are not part of the problem here. They are not draining resources away from other public schools.
|
I'm going to accept a portion of your premise, but ask for 1 modification. A general public school should exist and any catchment area before a catholic school or any alternative school is there.
Specifically in the area I live in, I don't know how funding was applied between the province or the school boards, but it complete unacceptable that Notre Dame predates Northern Trials by 15 years. That the Catholic junior high is 10 years older than the public one, that there are 2 catholic elementaries in my area, while the 1 public elementary is full and busing kids out.
I know several people who have no love of Catholicism and ship their kids to those schools, simply because of convenience. I personally do think there is a place for alternative programs in schooling, and I am almost leaning closer to the idea that the CBE should be relieved from management of alternative programs, providing greater focus on the general programs, and referring others to the programs as desired without the burden of focusing too much energy away from their core offering. It would probably be internal inconsistent of me to say language, science, arts, gifts, and sports programs are OK, but I draw the line as specific cultural programs which are still meeting basic education standards. So rather than railing on about how terrible religion is, I'll just say it is wrong of the province to have build catholic schools first regardless of whatever "fair" funding doctrine they used to justify it