SCHOOL REBATE

McGuinty on School rebate

Dear Xxxxxxxxx:

Thank you very much for your e-mail regarding the Harris government's recently announced tax credit for private school tuition. I am grateful to you for taking the time to share your views with me.

I passionately believe that universally accessible, high-quality education is the cornerstone of a just society and the key to our long-term prosperity. This is why we must focus first on improving public schools so that all working families can count on an excellent public education for their children. This is also why we have developed a program to foster excellence in our public schools. We would invest $350 million per year to provide for a hard cap on class size from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 3, allowing our youngest students to thrive. Our plan also includes other desperately needed improvements.

Just over one year ago, Mike Harris strongly argued that the measure he is now proposing would "fragment and weaken our public education system" and cost as much as $700 million. I believe that Mike Harris and his colleagues are being nothing but opportunistic. They are using religious schools as a smokescreen to bring in a voucher scheme, whose purpose is to channel public funds to private schools, including elite and for-profit schools. Such a scheme has been shown to be very detrimental to public education in other jurisdictions. The tax credit is simply a voucher plan by another name.

My colleagues and I have always recognized that there are many hard-working families who make sacrifices to send their children to faith-based schools. This is why it is so unfortunate that the Conservative government has purposely created a scheme that will provide cash for children in elite schools, under the guise of assisting denominational schools.

My acknowledgement that there is a fairness issue in the way Ontario funds religious schools has never wavered. I cannot say the same for Mr. Harris. You may recall that Mr. Harris attacked me during the 1999 Ontario Leaders' Debate saying that he had said "no" to the Canadian Jewish Congress while I had taken the position that I was not ideologically opposed to funding religious schools.

I have the utmost respect for your views. However, I remain deeply committed to restoring confidence in and stability to our public education system. Our goal is excellence across the public education system for all our children.

I sincerely appreciate your writing to me about this important issue.

Yours truly,

Dalton McGuinty, MPP Leader of the Official Opposition Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party