TORONTO - Publicly funding Catholic schools in Ontario is discriminatory to other faiths, activists said Monday as they pressed Ontario to merge the separate and public systems.
"For me as a taxpayer, I'm going to fund education, I want it to go for resources that are needed for student learning, not for resources to support one religious group," said Paula Conning, a co-ordinator with the group One School System.
About 60 people attended a rally Monday, held outside a conference attended by educators from around the world, where they argued merging the two systems would save taxpayers millions of dollars each year by avoiding duplication of expenses.
While religion courses are important they should not be required, but rather offered as electives at public schools, Conning said.
Catholic education rights in the province are guaranteed under the Constitution, and the full funding of Catholic schools was extended in 1985 to the upper grades of high school.
Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky said any changes to the current system would require court proceedings.
"Our focus is on how to spend money in classrooms, not courtrooms," she said in a statement.
"We have four publicly funded systems that the Supreme Court of Canada has said have a right to exist and we are very pleased with the achievement of our students in all our classrooms."
The four publicly funding systems in Ontario are the French and English school boards under the public system, and the French and English boards under the Catholic system.
Some of the protesters said Ontario should hold a referendum on the issue.
If recent history is any indicator, it's unlikely the political will exists in Ontario to reopen issues surrounding religious school funding.
In the 2007 provincial election campaign then Conservative leader John Tory's doomed campaign promise to fund all religious schools gave the ruling Liberals an easy victory.
