The first Catholic School in Alberta was established in 1842, a continuation of a history of publicly-funded religious schools that began during colonization in the early 1600s. In 1867, publicly-funded separate schools were enshrined in the Constitution. While to some extent the Constitutional protection of the right to religious schools has evolved to allow the subsidizing of Amish, Hutterite and Jewish schools, the tax-based system has for centuries been applied primarily to Catholic schools. Obviously, the demographics of Canada and Alberta have changed since the Constitution was enacted. When it comes to religious faiths, Christianity, and more specifically Catholicism, has been joined by everything from Hinduism and Islam to Buddhism and Scientology. It would be impractical and unsustainable to form publicly-funded school systems to meet the needs of every faith, which has led some to question why we continue to fund Catholic schools instead of creating a single secular public system and leaving religious studies to be delivered privately? Over the years provinces have been answering that question by eliminating funding to Catholic education. Today only three provinces - Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta - fully fund a Catholic-based education system. Quebec and Newfoundland ended the practice more than 20 years ago, Newfoundland by referendum that had 73 per cent voters choose to axe the funding to Catholic schools. Ontario has been having the same debate and like Newfoundlad that argument is money. In 2017, former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin said Newfoundland's two-decade-old decision stands as the right one from a fiscal perspective and Ontario's recently ousted Liberal government claimed eliminating funding to Catholic schools would save the province close to $1.6 billion. While there have not been studies done in Alberta, some opponents suggest eliminating Catholic funding would save the system $60 million in administration costs, but that assumes after the change all Catholic-based administrators would be axed and none added to the public system as a result. Any cost savings would also assume all nearly 200,000 students in the Catholic system stay in that system when it is no longer free. it also assumes the Catholic system would take responsibility for the more than 400 Catholic schools in the province. That is unlikely. There is also more to the argument than money. Those in favour of tax dollars going to the Catholic system say it's a matter of maintaining choice within the system, and ensuring parents continue to have access to education with a value system grounded in the moral teachings of Christianity. Note: both the public and Catholic systems must adhere to provincial curriculum, but Catholic schools have a religious studies component. A recent friendly debate in Cochrane hosted by the IDEAs groups had the crowd split 50/50 on the issue. In 2017 an Angus Reid poll suggested 43 per cent of Albertans continue to support fully-funded Catholic education, but 70 per cent support some level of funding. In contrast, according to the Fraser Institute, 2000/01 to 2014/15, the share of Alberta’s students in Roman Catholic separate schools increased to 23.5 per cent from 21.8 per cent while the share of students in the English public system declined to 68.1 per cent from 73.1 per cent . In the end, this question will likely come down to philosophy more than money. Does the province's demographics still justify having a single faith receive full public funding for schools? Regardless of the answer, it is not one that should be made by politicians. If Alberta ever looks to make this question official it should be resolved by referendum.
