IDiots Get Public Funding for their Schools in Alberta

 
Scott Rowed is one of the Alberta representatives for the Centre for Inquiry. He has an op-ed piece in Saturday's Edmonton Journal where he points out the dangers of giving public money to faith-based schools. These schools are permitted by law to discriminate on the basis of religious belief. That's not new. Here in Ontario we have a Roman Catholic school system that is fully funded by taxpayer money.

The shocking thing is the extent to which some faith-based schools will go to exclude rational thought and genuine education. For example, Scott says,

To have this choice of placing their children into a faith school, parents must obtain a letter from a preacher praising their church devotion and sign a statement of faith. This quote, from the constitution and bylaws of Fort McMurray Christian School Society, is typical: "We believe the Genesis account of creation is to be understood literally; that man was created in God's own image and after His own likeness; that man's creation was not by evolution or change of species or development through interminable periods of time from lower to higher form."

Parents who believe that the first cowboy saddled up a triceratops have more choice as their children can attend either a faith school or a public school. On the other hand, Christians who accept evolution, non-believers, and followers of other faiths can enrol their children only in a public school.

I agree with Scott. This is outrageous. Any school system that explicitly denies one of the fundamental facts of science should not receive a single penny of taxpayer's money.¹

There's only one rational solution to the problem. The government must fund a single secular school system. That means eliminating funding for the Catholic schools as well as the IDiot schools. If you live in Ontario, join the One School System Network and work toward achieving this goal.

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1. I wonder if Ben Stein will make a movie about this kind of discrimination? It's obvious that any teacher who believes in evolution will never get a job in one of these schools and any student who starts to believe in evolution will be EXPELLED.

[Photo Credit: Rahime at Prayer for Rain]