Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools is well within its right not to offer secular schooling, as the board pointed out at its last meeting concerning public schooling in Morinville. It is, after all, a division based predominantly in the teachings of the Catholic Church. That there is no public, non-religious alternative in Morinville speaks to one inarguable fact — public schooling in Morinville and the St. Albert region is in the wrong hands.
Two families approached the Catholic board in December seeking a non-faith-based public schooling alternative as all four schools in Morinville fall under the auspices of the Catholic division. Letting Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools continue as the public board will only lead to more problems because of its religious principles.
We have already seen examples where the Catholic public district has been challenged by its faith. When Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, was made available to all teenaged girls, the Catholic district went against the church’s recommendation and offered it to all its students. Yet the board caused a minor uproar in 2009 when it removed a transgendered teacher from its substitute list based on the advice of the regional archbishop and because being transgendered went against church doctrine.
The Catholic district doesn’t have to apologize for being Catholic, as superintendent David Keohane pointed out last week, but it does have a public responsibility. And if it doesn’t believe it can reconcile that responsibility with its faith, it has no business being the de facto school district. The numbers aren’t even on its side anymore. Only 46 per cent of Morinville families and 30 per cent of students identify themselves as Catholic. Only 37 per cent of people in St. Albert identify as Catholic. History might be on its side, but the numbers no longer are. And given the pending School Act review might eliminate a clause allowing students to be removed from religious education, it becomes more abundantly clear the Catholic division is bent on rallying the faith instead of accommodating others.
What’s surprising is that no one in the Morinville community had brought this to the attention of anyone else before. While the Catholic division provided the families with options, most of them are untenable. They either remove the student from the community to attend a secular public school or put the onus on a new district or the St. Albert Protestant board to build another school in a town of not even 8,000 people. For most the answer seems simple — let the Protestant district, a separate board, step in and take over. But the Protestant board’s interest in becoming public is tepid at best given the British North America Act guarantees the existence of separate boards and their perpetual right to public funds. The public school system is a creation of the province only. Previous attempts to have the two switch responsibilities have fallen through when success seemed guaranteed.
It is difficult to say, but both the families and the Catholic division are right in this instance. The kids should have a right to a non-religious atmosphere and the Catholic district doesn’t have to provide that. Yet there is no easy solution. Busing kids to St. Albert or disenfranchising families when it comes to what their kids are learning and how their schools are being led are equally unpalatable.
One family at last week’s Catholic trustee meeting asked if it was just easier to move. The sad part is, unless the Protestant district is ready to either expand into Morinville or assume the mantle of public school board, that might be true.
