WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1985, PAGE 13 1 Durham board will juin i protest over Catholie sehool funding By JAN DODGE Free Press Staff The Durham Board of Education wll present its objections to Bill 30 through the Association of Large School Boards of Ontario at legisiative hearinga currently being held in Toronto. Hearings on the ex- tension of fuil gover- nment funding for the separate secondary schools, now financed only to Grade 10, are continuing in Toronto. IIs difficuit to take an informed stand," Ajax Trustee David French said "because there is so littie infor- By ELEANOR STEVENSON The Whitby Lioness Club is pleased to an- nounce the winners of its Beef Draw held on July 26 at the Whitby Mail. The first prize winner is Bud Bailey of Port Hope, Ontario; second prize was won by T. Humphris, Whtby; and third» prize winner is Alie Bradley of Whit- by. community for its sup- port of this fundraising project. Funds raised will assist the club in its ongoing commitment to bWhitby and to the needs bof our community. As part of this com- mitment, a local child will be sponsored by the Whitby Lioness Club to a stay at a special camp for diabetic children. This residential sum- mer camp allows diabetic children to en- joy a regular camping experience while they are assured of the specialized medical care they require, together with sessions on nutrition and diet. These children also have the opportunity, while at camp, to receive counselling which assists themn in coping with their disease. Since its certification five years ago, the Whitby Lioness Club, a group of 20 women, has supported the needy on an international basis, through the Lions Inter- national Foundation, has contributed to the building of a leader dog school in Oakville, (a school which allows blind Canadians to be trained, together with their leader dogs, without having to go to the United States to do so), and has contributed both funds and volun- teer time to local organizations ranging mation... It was as if Bill Davis said, 'I'm going to change the rules.' We stili don't know how. " "If the Liberal gover- nment is going to in- crease funding either the overail bill for educational funding will increase substantially by the amountof extra money to the separate schools or the extra money for separate schools will come out of what is now budgeted for public sehools. "The impact of this would be to increase the deficit, or decrease taxes," he said. "Whlch route is the provincial government from the Kidney Foun- dation to a pre-school English as a Second Language program. Anyone interested in being part of this com- munity spirited organization, please cali the writer at 668-8253 for further information. EDITOR'S NOTE: Eleanor Stevenson la the president of the Whltby Lioness Club. going to go? Whatever route it takes wilî have an effect on the public system." French said if the separate school budget were increased, separate schools could then offer a number of new programs which could mean that public schools would lose a number of students and as a resuit both systems could end up with programs inadequately supported by students. That is just one possibility. Since the public school system has a mandate to develop ap- propriate programs for ahl students, and the separate schools have no such obligation, they could take on the more easily educable which could result in a shift of students to the separate schools, he said. "My opinion is that the separate schools have sold their bir- thright for a mess of potage. They will have more non-Catholic students and their unique quality will be diluted. Also there will be growing pressure from Queen's Park... .Other alter- native schools will challenge the gover- nment's funding in an attempt to gain equal funding. "It would be too bad if division should be cultivated over religion," French ad- ded. Since there are a minimum of basic guidelines, the majority of solutiqpS will probably be worked out at the local level. Thus across the province there may be a number of different solutions, French said. In spite of the lack of guidelines, French sees no significant problemns for this fail. However, Whitby Trustee John Buchanan said since our con- stitution states there must be equal treat- ment under the law, it must be determitied whether Bill 30 is legal under the law. "If it's legal, what does, that mean? What are the ramifications? We aren't getting any an- Mwers. "I have no problern with extending the funi- ding of separate schools from grade 10 to 12, but if this means an open door to ail other schools, the province can't af- ford it," Buchanan said. "What I think could happen is we might develop a voucher system. That is, a child might represent x dollars to the provin- ce ... If everybody gets full funding that voucher could be used for any school in any place. If that happened it would cost the provin- ce billions to ad- minister. " Buchanan said he is arguing for -a public systemn over a voucher systemn. "Politicians make it sound like a religious problem, and when you speak against Bihl 30 you're branded anti- invites you to their THURSDAY, AUG. IST/185 with 1 Helium Balloons (ohldea muet h. accompanied by un aduit) w Catholi . . .to me it is not a religious issue." Buchanan said the implementation of Bill 82 has improved the publie system (by providing, within the schools, specialized education for students with physical and men- tal abilities outside the norm). "If full funding goes through, this special education would be the first thing to go because of the expense, " he said. 'II think the separate schools see themselves being swailowed up. I see the public system vanishing. I see this (Bill 30) greatly reducing the ability to give good education.", -OuaIly FRepalra f0 mollt makea & modela -Fr» Esimates "Se usBin the Yellow Pages under Stereo Servicel" 1385 HARWOOOAE Jual South of Hwy. 2 Port Hope man wins local club's beef draw