There can be no argument anymore. DIRECT QUOTES FROM PUBLIC SUPERINTENDENTS & BOARD CHAIRS confirm operating the duplicate Catholic Separate schools in competition with Public Schools costs the taxpayer a LOT of money AND LOWERS the quality of the tools & facilities (& therefore, likely education outcomes) available to our children. How long are we going to keep wasting millions & millions of tax dollars on the inefficiencies caused by operating duplicate competing school systems so that our government can unfairly favor one religion over all others for no educational advantage (& likely at an educational cost)? And how long does the majority of Public schoolers & taxpayers have to keep writing the cheque for a bunch or privileged religious snobs that wont even compromise on infrastructure to save the taxpayer a buck - or to get the best educational environment & tools for our children because PERMEATING THEIR RELIGION IS MORE IMPORTANT, on the public dime. This, from an article in the Red Deer Advocate on the recent pressuring of the Public Board to reverse its vote to favor the uncompromising Catholic board; Superintendent Piet Langstraat said the board was told by the City of Red Deer it had to approve the site concept plan so Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools district could get its new high school on time. The Public Board had hoped to have more shared facilities at the site, such as a gym or a career and technology studies lab that could include manufacturing design, construction, trades and heavy equipment related programming. There are certain facilities at High Schools that are very expensive to build., said Manning. We can do our taxpayers a huge service if we work together to share these spaces. (Superintendent) Langstraat said the original concept plan had separate public & Catholic schools, but in between the two buildings was another structure with all kinds of shared facilities. We were looking at shared gym space, CTS space, arts space, said Langstraat. If we each build a technology lab inside our own schools, well get an OK technology lab. If we were to pool all our funds and share the space, we could build a state-of-the-art, fantastic technology lab that we would share. That was the idea. The public board hopes that going forward there may be some shared facility between the Francophone and public high schools. But the Catholic high school will definitely be a separate building. So there you have it. A publicly elected board were pressured to change their vote from what they thought was right, to favor the competing school board that wont compromise on anything - ultimately lowering the quality of the facilities available to students and at the same time increasing the cost to taxpayers. And in the Alberta Catholic School Trustees own words; ACSTA, Fundamental Principles - #3 The ACSTA and its member boards oppose the joint use of school buildings with public school boards in any manner that has the effect of undermining or interrupting the full permeation of Catholic values and beliefs. Estimates on the cost of the inefficiencies continue to creep up toward the quarter of a billion dollars a year mark WASTED. Thats quarter of a billion dollars of TAXPAYERS money from the EDUCATION budget for ZERO educational advantage. Imagine what we could do with that money EVERY year? How many brand new schools could we build and how many thousands more teachers could we hire? Surely its time for the Catholic church to start covering that additional cost, or for us to re-evaluate whether the Separate system is even fair, appropriate or relevant anymore? Refs. Excerpts from the RedDeerAdvocate Red Deer Public Board Agendas & Minutes available from rdpsd.ab.ca/Board-Agenda-Minutes.php
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 19:43:12 +0000
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