We don't need no Prue-ducation!

Michael Prue, the former mayor of East York (before it was swallowed up by the mega Toronto) and currently the Ontario NDP MLA for Beaches-East York announced he was running for the party's leadership. No sooner that he did that, than he sublimely suggested that the province might want to open up the debate on whether there should be still be two publicly funded systems -- one non-denominational, one for Roman Catholics.

Didn't we have an election last year that revolved around the school funding issue and whether public financing should be extended to all religious schools? And wasn't that resoundly rejected by Ontario's voters?

If we're really going to revisit this issue and so soon then it should be done through a focused referendum, preferably held at the same time as the 2010 municipal elections so as to cut down on administrative costs. (I seem to recall the voters of Newfoundland had to go through the exercise twice in the space of less than three years -- first, to set up a parallel public system; then second to abolish the confessional schools altogether.)

Besides as a publicly funded system, the Catholic schools are open to all. This is something opponents of Catholic schools seem to forget. Back in my high school days, I had classmates who were members of some Protestant denominations and in no way were they ostracized by the rest of us. We simply didn't care -- and for what it's worth, the majority of us who were Catholic certainly didn't act in the way the Magesterium would have wanted us to; if you know what I mean.

We don't need the aggravation right now, especially now that we're in recession. We should be building up the health, education and welfare systems we currently have.

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