1. Divine education: RESEARCH QUESTION POLICY ALTERNATIVE 3
Why is a revision to catholic school Funding necessary in Saskatchewan?
Presented by: Hana Blazkova, Lavonne Cloke, Luis corredorduarte, LJ De Gara, Nathaniel deng mayen
Supported by: Haizhen mou
RESEARCH QUESTION
POLICY ALTERNATIVE 3
When it comes to education policy, why is a revision of Catholic school public funding necessary in Saskatchewan? Three policy alternatives are presented to contest this problem, concluding with our policy recommendation.
Nominal funding for all religions who can make a case for their school.
The existing system is not horizontally equitable.
Creation of viability. If two systems are good, wouldn’t three systems be better?
Increased choice. Within a school district, people would be able to cast their votes on their choice of education. If you’re in a predominantly Catholic area and have 80% of votes towards Catholic education, Catholic funding would remain.
Inclusivity. We know partially funded schools can exist. We want to be inclusive of all religions, not just Catholic.
Expensive allocation period. Adding a step to the system.
Public Funding of Religious Schools in Canada
Full funding of Catholic schools. Partial funding of religious schools.
Saskatchewan
Partial funding of religious schools.
British Columbia
Quebec
Full funding of Catholic schools. No funding of other religious schools.
Ontario
No funding of religious schools.
NS, NB
Partial funding of religious schools.
Manitoba
PEI, NFLD
Alberta
Figure 1: Status of Faith Based Funding Across Canada
POLICY ALTERNATIVE 1
Maintain the status quo. Continue to publicly fund the Catholic school system and public school system.
Limit monopoly forming. School boards operate independently.
Increased competition among school districts. Competition has a modest positive effect on student achievement [1].
Maintenance of Canada’s historical value.
Money saved. It’s cost effective to keep the school system the way it is.
Figure 2: Ontario’s support for Catholic School funding. (Source: Forum Research)
POLICY ALTERNATIVE 2
POLICY RECOMMENDATION
Against public funding for Catholic schools. One public school system in Saskatchewan.
Increased efficiency. The elimination of separate schools and the creation of one school system would eradicate duplicate costs from overlapping school boards and schools operating below enrolment capacity.
The Ontario public (offers full funding of Catholic schools, similar to SK) has never actually been in favour of public funding for Catholic schools.
Reduced compliance and administration costs. One federal tax would be collected and one provincial curriculum created per province.
Horizontal equity. All children would attend the same publicly funded system regardless of their parent’s earnings, where they live, etc.
Political viability. Yes there are some issues but it is possible. Newfoundland adopted a non-denominational, single, secular school system in 1997 [2].
Policy Alternative 2: One public school system in Saskatchewan.
We believe that public schools have an important integrating function encouraging interaction of children from all socio-economic backgrounds and of all religious beliefs. Public tax dollars should not support faith-based education. This encourages segregation of the liberal-democratic nature of Saskatchewan. Funding numerous religious educations in addition to a standard public school system across is inefficient and expensive, therefore we recommend one public school system in Saskatchewan [3].
REFERENCES
Card, D., Dooley, M., Payne, A. “School Competition and Efficiency with Publicly Funded Catholic Schools.” July (26 March 2015)
Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. “The Collapse of Denominational Education.” (30 March 2015)
Canadian Secular Alliance. “Public Financing of Religious Schools.”
(29 March 2015)