War of words escalates over school tax credit
Evolving beyond a simple budget policy measure, Ontario's controversial education tax credit has become a debate about the place of religion in public life, complete with charges of elitism, anti-Semitism and intolerance from a myriad of groups supporting or opposing the plan.
When provincial Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced in May that the Ontario government would help alleviate the financial burden shouldered by parents who send their children to private or religious schools, it signaled a fundamental change in the province's education funding policy.
Funding decried
Under the plan announced in the Conservative government's 2001 budget, parents will be eligible for a tax credit of 10 per cent of tuition fees charged by private or religious schools up to a maximum tuition fee of $7,000 starting this fall. That amount will rise during the next five years to 50 per cent for a maximum tax credit of $3,500.
But even as province-wide hearings into the tax credit proposal came to an end, the change did not go over without some struggle.
According to Maureen Huisman, president of the United Church of Canada's Toronto Conference, the tax credit scheme will, "diminish the noble foundation of public education," by taking money out of the public schools, increasing class sizes and continuing the government's attack on teachers. Huisman says there is "no question" that private religious schools have a right to exist, but believes they should not expect any public support.
During the public hearings, Liberal George Smitherman, the only openly gay member of the Ontario legislature, denounced the "homophobia" he believes is rampant in Christian schools, noting that, "As a gay man, I've experienced a lot of the word of God thrown back at me."
However, Conservative MPP Bill Murdoch said opposition is coming mostly from teacher unions and school boards "who don't like us anyway," and that his government will pass the tax credit. Murdoch and other Conservative MPPs have suggested limiting the tax credit to lower and middle-income parents, but Flaherty has been cool to the idea.
While the UCC and other mainline churches such as the Anglicans and Presbyterians denounce the tax credit, the main voice of the province's 73 private Christian schools strongly defends its members and the plan against charges of intolerance and homophobia.
The Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools (OACS) came under fire shortly after the tax credit was announced when they asked supporters to help raise $500,000 for a government and media relations campaign to defend the proposal and shore up public support.
Plan defended
A fundraising letter sent to OACS supporters says the association already spent $175,000 in the past year on four part-time lobbyists, polls and consultants. Tax credit opponents said that alone was proof the OACS was unduly influencing the Ontario government's change to its long-standing opposition to funding religious schools other than those that are Roman Catholic.
John Vanasselt, the OACS's communications director, vehemently denounces such arguments, saying his organization simply asked the government to "roughly bring Ontario in line with other provinces "when it comes to funding religious schools. The war of words over the issue did nothing for tolerance and understanding when it comes to faith-based schools, says Ed Morgan, the Ontario Chair of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
During public hearings, Morgan blasted comments made by Duncan Green, a former Director of Education in Toronto, who said funding private religious schools would promote, "racism and religious intolerance," a view that Morgan denounced as "insulting."
"First, they [opponents of the tax credit] said it would financially ruin public schools. Then they said it would promote intolerance. Then that it would benefit only the rich," Morgan says. "The various arguments don't address the core issue–equity [funding for all religiously-based schools]."
The government intends to start offering parents with children in private schools the 10 per cent tax credit starting this September.
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