ONe Public Education

The Goal of ONe Public Education:

The goal of this ONe Public Education website is to increase public awareness of the clear public policy reasons for the Province of Ontario to no longer have "separate" public Catholic school boards, similar to how other provinces such as the Province of Québec and the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador decided to no longer have any religion-based public school boards. Ontario currently has 4 main public education school boards systems: 1) English-language secular school boards, 2) English-language Catholic school boards, 3) French-language secular school boards, and 4) French-language Catholic school boards. The English-language school boards can be merged into English-language public school boards (for example, the York Region District School Board and the York Catholic District School Board merging into one public school board) and French-language school boards can be merged into French-language public school boards, resulting in: 1) English-language public school boards and 2) French-language public school boards across Ontario without any religion-based school boards.

L'objectif de ONe Public Education:

L'objectif de ce site Web, ONe Public Education, est d'accroître la sensibilisation du public aux raisons politiques publiques claires pour lesquelles la province de l'Ontario n'a plus de conseils scolaires publics catholiques « séparés », comme c'est le cas dans d'autres provinces telles que le Québec et Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador, qui ont décidé de ne plus avoir de conseils scolaires publics basés sur la religion. L'Ontario dispose actuellement de 4 principaux systèmes de conseils scolaires publics : 1) conseils scolaires laïcs anglophones, 2) conseils scolaires catholiques anglophones, 3) conseils scolaires laïcs francophones, et 4) conseils scolaires catholiques francophones. Les commissions scolaires anglophones peuvent être fusionnées en commissions scolaires publiques anglophones (par exemple, la fusion de la York Region District School Board et de la York Catholic District School Board en une seule commission scolaire publique) et les commissions scolaires francophones peuvent être fusionnées en commissions scolaires publiques francophones, ce qui donne : 1) des commissions scolaires publiques anglophones et 2) des commissions scolaires publiques francophones à travers l'Ontario, sans aucune commission scolaire basée sur la religion.

Billions Saved / Reinvested

While the initial merging of school boards may be administratively challenging at first, not having duplicate school boards in the same municipalities could save $1+ billion annually for Ontario (mostly from duplicate administrative costs), money that can be reinvested into public education.

Anti-2SLGBTQI+ Curriculum

While a few public Catholic school boards fly the Pride flag, all teach anti-2SLGBTQI+ beliefs, teaching that it's evil/sin to be in a gay relationship or to identify as trans. 2SLGBTQI+ students deserve fully safe schools, not schools teaching them that there's something wrong with them for being 2SLGBTQI+.

Public Health Concerns

All public Catholic school boards teach beliefs that contradict Ontario's public health messages. For example, while Ontario and local public health units advocate for condoms as good/effective in protecting against STIs (including saving lives), Catholic boards teach that using condoms is evil/sin.

Anti-Women Curriculum

All public Catholic school boards teach that contraception is evil/sin, which negavively impacts women. Further, students are taught that men are superior to women through the belief that only men can be in the key leadership positions of priest. Students will only see men as religious leaders.

Outdated Reasons

Public Catholic school boards became a Canadian constitutional minority right in Ontario in 1867 because the majority public school boards were effectively religious (Protestant). Today, the majority school boards are fully secular, negating the reason for having minority religious/Catholic boards.

Other Divisive Impacts

Having schools in the same community segregated by religion divides society. Sometimes this religious segregation becomes visible racially/ethnically based on the demographic differences (eg. immigration place of origin) between Catholics and non-Catholics in Ontario communities.

Human Rights (Attendance)

It is inherently unfair that public Catholic school boards in Ontario at the elementary level, in most cases, accept only students who are Catholic or have a Catholic parent. This is inherently unfair to all other parents and students in Ontario who are not Catholic, who do not have the same choices.

Human Rights (Employment)

Public Catholic school boards in Ontario have unfair hiring practices. For leadership roles as well, such as principal, they can legally choose not to hire a teacher who is living inconsistently with Catholic beliefs, such as being in a marriage after a divorce or being in a gay marriage.

Questions?

Contact info@onepubliceducation.ca to get more information.

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