Leaders of the two main parties sparred Monday over money for religious schooling, with the New Democrats complaining that the issue had diverted attention from under-funded public schools.
Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty said his opponents plan to offer public money to religious schools was "bad judgment," an idea that had not been properly thought out.
"If you're going to lob this grenade into the education debate, then you'd better know where you're taking us," he said during a visit to a Catholic high school in Markham, Ont., north of Toronto. "You better have worked this out in minute detail, and I haven't seen any evidence of that whatsoever."
It was the first time during the campaign that McGuinty has visited a Catholic school, and he took the opportunity to defend the current system from charges that it discriminates against students of other faiths. He said his own Catholic faith, and the existence of a publicly funded Catholic system, do not conflict with his decision to oppose John Tory's plan.
"I want to make publicly-funded education so excellent, so irresistible, that all those kids that find themselves in our private schools today will say, 'I want to go to a public school,"' he said. "My Catholicism, my private faith, does not determine my position."
The Liberal leader repeated his claims that Mr. Tory's plan would take $500-million a year out of public education and segregate students.
Mr. Tory rejects the accusation. Campaigning Monday in eastern Ontario, he said that his plan to fund faith-based schools is a matter of fairness and that it would go hand-in-hand with additional investments in the existing public system.
Mr. McGuinty "has not fixed, in four years, the funding formula," he told a call-in show on Ottawa radio station CFRA.
"School buildings are falling down. More kids are in split grades than ever, and in portable classrooms," he said. "So we're going to fix those things. But this money is not going outside of public education. This money is going to become part of what we invest in a broader public education system.
The Conservatives say they would invest an additional $963-million in Ontario's schools during their first year in office. That would increase to at least $2.4-billion by the final year of a four-year mandate. The money, said Mr. Tory, would come from spending efficiencies and from an increase in tax revenues that is predicted to occur as the economy grows.
"We are doing this very gradually and responsibly if we are given the privilege of being in government," he said.
This money is separate from any funding for faith-based schools, an issue that has divided the public.
Faith-based schools have been thrust into the election media spotlight because the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives don't want to address the gross underfunding of the schooling system, charged NDP Leader Howard Hampton.
Mr. Hampton says the real focus should be on fixing the funding formula - a pledge made by the Liberal Party in the 2003 election campaign but not carried out.
"The Conservatives broke the formula, and the Liberals broke the promise to fix it," Mr. Hampton said during a campaign stop in North York on Monday morning. Giving all children "the education they deserve" is the fourth plank of the NDP platform.
"Our kids are suffering because Mr. McGuinty didn't keep his promise to fix the Conservatives' flawed formula," he said. "They're both hiding behind [the issue of] faith-based schools."
People for Education said the faith-based school funding debate was a distraction from what could be a broad analysis of education policy.
The faith-based school funding debate "sends us back to a time when every conversation about education was a polarized debate," says executive director Annie Kidder.
"Education shouldn't be something where you pick your side and fight for it. We would like to see some big picture thinking," she said.
"We'd like to get it out of this polarized debate where it's about scoring points. It's frustrating."
The group will release its tip sheets for parents on Tuesday along with a list of questions it deems vital for this election.
Mr. Tory said Monday he would hold fast to his position even in the face of opposition.
"Are we to the point now where nobody in public life anymore can take a position of leadership on a matter or principle?" he asked. "I wouldn't have come into public life if I thought it wasn't possible, indeed necessary, for people to take a position on something they thought was right."
Bringing the 53,000 children who are taught at faith-based schools into the public system means that those students can be assured of receiving the same standard of education as other Ontario kids, he said.
"I think this is fundamentally important and I think there is and important matter of fairness involved as well as between different religious faiths."
With a report from Canadian Press
