John Tory puts faith in school religion – thestar.com

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/239077

Ontario’s Leader of the Opposition, John Tory, seems to be adding a very strange plank to his election platform: He wants taxpayer money to supplement private, religious schools in the province. Currently, money is already siphoned off for Catholic schools, but Tory’s policy would have Hindu, Islamic, Jewish and other institutions covered as well.

I think the last thing that the very multicultural Ontario (though, let’s face it, this will mainly affect Toronto and Ottawa) needs these days is a more ghettoised school system. Emphasising that which is different – especially when that difference is based on fractious dogma – will hardly help these different cultures integrate or intermingle. Though they do seem united in greed at the prospect of government funding:

There are 30 Islamic schools in Ontario but many families who want to send their children to these religious schools can’t afford the $5,000 to 7,000 per-child cost, said Mustafa Rawji, from the Islamic Society of North America.

“So we’re happy to see that we’ll be able to get the taxpayer money that is being channelled to the public schools right now,” said Rawji.

Free money? I’d be ecstatic too!

You’d think the opposite tack would be far more efficient: Making these schools cover all their own costs would not only insure the church/state divide, but also effectively “taxing” religious separatists through tuition fees. (Remember that their churches and temples are exempted from paying their fair share of tax.) In essence, kill ’em all (funding-wise) and let God sort ’em out.

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