Students wary of faith schools issue

Students wary of faith schools issue

Y-Files

By: Tirath Thakkar

Although Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory has backed off his promise to fund faith-based schools, promising instead a free vote in the legislature, the debate over the issue continues.

It is only appropriate that opinions are heard from those who would be directly affected by the policy, the students of Ontario.

The general consensus among Markham high school students polled was overwhelming displeasure.

“No tax money of any sort should go toward funding private religious schools. We are a secular society and public money should not be spent toward funding faith-based schools,” said Nathan Lau, a student of Middlefield Collegiate Institute.

Some  students are concerned about complications that may arise from Mr. Tory’s policy.

“How will the government ensure an even amount of funds are distributed fairly to all the different faith schools? It will be next to impossible for the government to fund faith-based schools in a way where no school is upset. If they fund a certain faith group, there will be another faith group that will voice its disagreement,” said Natasha Lo, a former student of Markville Secondary.

When surveyed, 17 of 20 students opposed the idea of faith-based funding. Two students approved of it and one student believed it didn’t matter if the government went along with the idea or not.

One of the major reasons commonly given for opposing the idea was that money should be spent improving existing  public schools.

“It’s not like the public education system has a lot of money to spend and is rich with resources. The fact is that classrooms are getting larger and resources are getting fewer. The money would be better spent on improving the current system,” Henry Lau said.

Although secondary school class sizes were supposed to be kept at around 22 students, many in York Region are larger with some around 30.

The two students who approved of the idea cited the funds the Catholic school board receives from the government as the main reason of their choice.

Tirath Thakkar is a student at Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School and a member of the York Region Media Group’s y-team

All content contained in this or any other yorkregion.com website including but not limited to textual, audio, video and any graphics are copyright 2000-2008 Metroland Media Group Ltd. and can not be used in any part without expressed written permission, with the exception of content in the yorkregion.com Pen & Pixel section, which requires the written consent of the authors.