I don't have much sympathy for the minority of parents who want a completely secular school system for their children in Morinville.
If they have wound up with a faith-based curriculum, they (or more likely, their parents) asked for it when they endorsed education for everyone. Since Christian schools were pretty well the only ones established in Alberta, the governments (past and present) decided to create a monopoly by taxing everyone, whether they had children or not, in order to support Christian public schools (the denomination really doesn't matter).
If they would have left things up to the market, as they should have, secular private schools could have competed equally against the established ones and parents would then have had a (relatively inexpensive) choice.
But you say some children would suffer because government isn't setting a standard for quality education and children going to (possibly) substandard schools aren't getting a fair deal.
Well folks, we all know how good governments are in setting standards for anything, let alone education.
I have a message for the disgruntled parents in Morinville. If you still want the government meddling with education, then observe an old Spanish proverb: Take what you want and pay for it. Otherwise, convince people to ask the government to get out of the way.
Eric Joly, St. Albert
