Brief to the Legislative Committee on Educational Tax Credits

Introduction

We have come to the Committee to put four points before you for your consideration:

1. Parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children.
2. Parents, therefore, have an obligation to choose for their children the educational setting which will best meet all of their needs (intellectual, spiritual, physical and attitudinal) for a life which will be fulfilling and which will equip them to contribute to the common good.
3. Governments should facilitate parents in providing the education that parents consider appropriate for their children.
4. In doing so legislators have a legitimate interest in ensuring that some basic general standards of achievement and experience are met for all of the children in society.

Parents are clearly the first educators of their children. We are working from the premise that the vast majority of parents try to pass on to their children those attitudes, approaches to life and world view, which will permit them to become integrated and contributing adults.

The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute. The right and duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable.< > Catechism of the Catholic Church, (2221)

Parents want to give their children only what they themselves have found to be helpful in life - especially in something as fundamental as education. We would submit that the most profound formation takes place in the areas of faith and culture. These should be given the gravest consideration with regard to parental choice.

The Role of Society

We submit that the most prudent role for society is to assist parents in their task of educating and forming their children. Parents deserve to have their most fundamental convictions about the meaning of life supported in the schooling of their children.

As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental... Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions of its exercise.< > The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2229)

Pluralism

We live in a pluralistic society. A true pluralism will cherish a variety of world views and benefit from their interaction.

Nevertheless, the state does have a legitimate interest in ensuring that the education received by its citizens meets certain minimum standards, particularly in the areas of knowledge, skills and civic responsibility.

It is legitimate that schools that receive public funding should be required to meet the demands of regulations in the areas of curriculum, public policy (for example, anti-racism), and standards (for example, teacher qualifications) democratically arrived at by the legislature. At this moment, we have in Ontario four publicly funded systems varying in faith, language and culture, which operate cooperatively and effectively under the same legislation and regulations.

The Catholic bishops of Ontario support public funding for faith based and culture based education which is supported by parental choice. Such education can and should meet some basic requirements set by the legislature.

ACBO made its position clear in a pastoral letter, This Moment of Promise (1989):

Our commitment to the best education for all students impels us to respect and support the wishes of parents in other faith communities for religious education in the public school system or for alternative schools which will reflect their values and beliefs. The primacy of parental rights in education is a value which should be realized not only by Catholic parents but also by others. We have publicly committed ourselves to support the concept of the development of alternative schools for people of other faith communities.