The Curious Case of Catholic Education in Ontario
Catholic school boards want to be separate but do not want to be Catholic.
There is not much that the Fraser Institute and the Green Party agree on, but getting rid of publicly funded Catholic education in Ontario is one of those unicorns. Both are in favour of creating one French and one English system for the entire province. While estimates vary wildly about how much money such a move would save - from $140 million to over $2 billion annually – the increased efficiency and economic savings explain the cross partisan appeal. Now, once we start talking about what to do with those savings, then the two groups ideas diverge quite quickly. But the point still stands that libertarians and progressives alike can at least agree on eliminating Catholic schools in Ontario.
Yet, in spite of cross partisan support for eliminating public Catholic schools in the province, none of the major political parties are willing to touch the issue. As recently as 2019 when Ontario Liberal leadership candidate Alvin Tedjo floated the idea of merging the Catholic and public boards, the Doug Ford led PCs and the even the Ontario Liberals quickly rejected the idea. While some polls suggest upwards of 70% of Ontario voters support a merger, in the 2022 Provincial election nobody even wanted to talk about Catholic schools.
Historically, the constitutional protections for Catholic education were designed to protect French language rights. In the 19th century, Catholic education meant French education, so by granting constitutional protections to Catholic schools you were protecting Francophone language rights. Fast forward 155 years and that is no longer the case. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects French language education rights explicitly and Ontario has a secular French school system (in addition to a French-Catholic one, thus furthering duplication). While the Catholic Church did perform the role of protector of French-Canadians in 1867, that is simply not the case anymore.
Without an appeal to minority language rights, Catholic education advocates have resorted to a number of other arguments. Both the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) have released refutations explaining why eliminating the Catholic board is a bad idea. Essentially the arguments these groups make boil down to three broad ideas: it won’t actually save money, disruption is bad for the kids and it is politically unpopular. What is intriguing though is that they never actually defend their system’s Catholicism, in theory its defining element. In fact, the OECTA goes out of their way to demonstrate that Catholic schools both teach the new Ontario Sex Ed curriculum and allow Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), policies the Catholic Church’s hierarchy has strongly opposed.
The situation becomes even more bizarre when you look at the teachers working in the system. The union for English Catholic teacher, OECTA lists their political positions on their website and they are very progressive. In particular, the union is outspoken on LGBTQ issues and are members of World Pride with local chapters (like the Ottawa one) marching in their city’s parade. These positions stand in stark contrast with the Catholic Church. While some of the union’s activism regarding poverty and international aid would find support in Rome, their stance on issues relating to sexual morality and family are in direct opposition to the position of the Church.
When we look at individuals teaching in schools the contrast between teachers’ progressive values and those of the Church becomes even starker. In this one example, we get a Toronto teacher telling a Catholic priest that they can’t talk about Catholic doctrine in a Catholic school.
Certainly, on a personal level, I understand and agree with said teachers objections to Catholic teachings regarding sexual morality and the family. I left the Catholic Church over a decade ago due to my profound disagreement with the Church, particularly their stance on homosexuality, birth control and women priests. The reason why leaving was the only option is that these teachings are not just peripheral “sex stuff” but teachings about the family are central to Catholic Dogma. I mean, Pope John Paul II’s major published theological work was called Theology of the Body and related to “sex stuff.” While it is true that many Catholics in Canada ignore the social teachings that they disagree with, that doesn’t make these teachings any less central to the Church’s belief structure.
The result is that we end up in Ontario with a Catholic School System that doesn’t want to be Catholic. Many conservative Catholics already recognize the secular and progressive nature of the Catholic system, choosing to opt out of the system in favour of private, Christian education. Remember the kerfuffle around former Conservative leader Andrew Sheer having his party pay for his kids private school tuition? It was because he is a very conservative Catholic who sent his kids to a private Christian school in Ottawa and not a publicly funded Catholic school.
Now, it may not be legally possible for Catholic schools to fully follow Catholic doctrine. Yes, there are exceptions carved out in section 26 of the Charter for pre-Charter rights such as Catholic schooling. Also legislation like the Ontario Human Rights Code do not apply to the Catholic system, but I imagine an overtly discriminatory hiring process would be challenged in court. Often times, in cases like accepting GSAs, the Catholic boards stated that they would follow The Accepting Schools Act rather than challenge it. Not being a lawyer, I have no idea how the courts would decide on these questions. But the fact that Catholic schools might be legally prevented from following certain Catholic teachings only further reinforces the question of what the reason d’etre for the separate school system is.
So in the end we have two functionally identical English school systems where one simply has the quirk of a morning prayer and some of the schools are named after saints. Given the political realities in the province right now I do not expect a major push to eliminate Catholic school boards anytime soon. The political risks in proposing such a radical move are is simply too large and the possibility of political blow back too high. I do, however, think that it is important to reflect on just how bizarre the existing situation is.
It is also worth pushing public defenders of Catholic education on why exactly such a system should exist. If they are not willing to defend the Catholic nature of the system, then what unique need does continuing with separate English and French boards fulfill? If their only defence of the status quo is that change is hard then the question has to become how Ontario can make that change as smoothly as possible.