A single secular school system for Ontario
Given the diversity of Ontario’s population, our school system should be playing a key role in fostering mutual understanding and social cohesion.
The increasing diversity of Ontario’s population makes it difficult to defend a school system devoted to one religion. Ontario today is much different demographically than it was in 1867 when rights for Catholic and Protestant schools were established through the British North America Act, precursor to the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982.
Given the diversity of Ontario’s population, our school system should be playing a key role in fostering mutual understanding and social cohesion. This goal is best achieved through an education system where students of all backgrounds learn together and see themselves in the faces of their teachers, and where curriculum is developed based on the whole population, not on the beliefs of one religion.
Due to recent declining student enrolment, many communities in rural and northern areas have an insufficient number of students to support schools delivered through four different school boards. This is leading to school closures that leave some communities without an elementary English-language public school; it is forcing school boards to bus young students long distances. To compete for students, Catholic boards are accepting non-Catholic students and both public and Catholic boards are waging expensive marketing campaigns. This is an example of wasteful spending that should be directed to the classroom.
ETFO believes the public and Catholic school systems should be merged to create one public school system for English language students and another for French language students. The 2018 ETFO poll indicates that 56 per cent of Ontarians agree with this position.
The fact that Canada’s leaders in 1867 made a deal should not mean that deal can never change. Quebec and Newfoundland both changed their school systems. Quebec has eliminated its Catholic and Protestant school boards and Newfoundland has replaced seven denominational school boards with one public board. What is needed is the political will to make the change.
Share to your facebook group: hit “share to a group now” and then use the dropdown.
Share to a group now
Share to your facebook friends
Share to your friends nowShare on Twitter
Tweet about it nowShare by email
Email your friends and familyRecommendations
- Establish one publicly funded education system in Ontario for each of Canada’s official languages.
Sources
Bascia, Nina (2010). Reducing Class Size: What Do We Know? Toronto: Canadian Education Association.
Coish, David (2005). Canadian School Libraries and Teacher-Librarians: Results from the 2003/04 Information and Communications Technologies in Schools Survey. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.
Cummins, Jim (2012). Teaching English Language Learners. Research for Teachers, No. 9. ETFO and OISE/University of Toronto.
Education Quality and Accountability Office (2017). 2016–2017 Annual Report. Toronto: Queen’s Printer for Ontario.
Fairholm, Robert (2010). Early Learning and Care Impact Analysis. Milton: The Centre for Spacial Economics.
Gilraine, Michael, Macartney, H. and McMillan, R. (2018). Education Reform in General Equilibrium: Evidence from California’s Class Reduction. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Hargreaves, Andy and Fullan, M. (2012). Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.
Hargreaves, Andy and Shirley, D. (2009) The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Leithwood, Kenneth, McAdie, P. Bascia, N., and Rodrigue, A., eds. (2004). Teaching for Deep Understanding: Towards the Ontario Curriculum that We Need. Toronto: Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and OISE/UT.
Mackenzie, Hugh (2009). No Time for Complacency: Education Funding Reality Check. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Mackenzie, Hugh (2017). Shortchanging Ontario Students: An Overview and Assessment of Education Funding in Ontario. Toronto: Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.
Mackenzie, Hugh (2017). Ontario’s deteriorating schools: The fix is not in. Toronto: Campaign for Public Education.
OECD (2012). Lessons from PISA for Japan, Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264118539-en
Ontario Auditor General (2017). Annual Report. Toronto.
Ontario Ministry of Education (2009). Planning and Possibilities: The Report of the Declining Enrolment Working Group. Toronto.
ParticipACTION (2015). The Biggest Risk is Keeping Kids Indoors. The 2015 ParticipACTION Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. Toronto: ParticipACTION.
People for Education (2017). Competing Priorities (Annual Report on Ontario’s Publicly Funded Schools 2017. Toronto: People for Education.
People for Education (2013). Mind the Gap: Inequality in Ontario Schools. Toronto. People for Education.
Queen’s University and People for Education. Klinger, D.A.; Lee, E.A.; Stephenson, G.; Deluca, C.; Luu, K (2009). “Exemplary School Libraries in Ontario.” Ontario Library Association. Toronto.
Queen’s University and People for Education (2006). School Libraries and Student Achievement in Ontario. Ontario Library Association. Toronto.
Pollock, Katina and Mindzak, M. (2015). Specialist Teachers - A Review of the Literature prepared for the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. Toronto.
Ravitch, Diane (2010). The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education. New York: Basic Books.
Sahlberg, Pasi. (2011) Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? New York: Teachers College Press.
Schanzenback, D.W. (2014). Does Class Size Matter? Boulder CO: National Education Policy Centre.
Stratcom (2018). An Opinion Survey of Ontarians’ Views on Public Education. Toronto: Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.
Upitis, Rena and Smithrim, K. (2002). Learning Through the Arts, National Assessment 1999-2003, Final Report Part I: Grade Student Achievement and Engagement. Kingston.