They’re my kids, not yours Mr. McGuinty!

Ten years ago Susie and I decided to start a family. The next summer Josiah arrived, followed by four siblings over the next six and a half years. Biologically they are our children. Spiritually it is our mandate to care for them. They bear our last name. We decide what they watch on TV, what books and video games are appropriate, what language they will speak, what church they will go to, and what they will eat based on our values. And if you’ve met them, they seem pretty content with our choices! In case you’ve missed my drift, these five kids are our children. As a father I would protect them with my life. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone!

Being that they are our kids, we should be able to raise them as we see fit, unless of course we were to abuse them. If our choices were to endanger their lives, that’s where my authority would end and the community of which I am a part would intervene. Makes sense. But aside from that, they are our kids.

Strangely though, the provincial community of which I am a part is both in favour of me schooling my kids the way I wish, but at the same time discouraging me to school the kids the way I wish. Let me explain. As a couple, Susie and I have chosen to educate our children in a school that meets all the Ontario curriculum requirements, is inspected by the Ministry of Education, while at the same time reinforcing our Christian values. Makes sense doesn’t it??? For instance, my children are taught by Christian theists who affirm the morality of biblical Christianity. The teachers don’t curse around our kids, bring naked people into art classes for students to sketch, or advocate Darwinian theories, like my public school teachers did! I have the freedom to send my kids to such a school, just as other parents can freely choose to home school or utilize the public system.

The catch is this: for some reason the powers that be have forced me to pay for this school AND the public system that I freely choose not to be a part of. So while I am free to pay tuition to an independent, Ontario accredited school, I am not free to not pay for a public Ontario accredited school! Premier McGuinty has levied a spirit-attack on people like us arguing that if we were allowed to keep our own money for our education that the public system will crumble! While that might fly with a few shallow thinkers and strike fear into the heart of the voters, it is an argument that is untenable in a free democracy. Here’s why:

1. The government is not responsible to educate my kids. Throughout that vast majority of human history, parents took sole responsibility for educating their kids. And any tutors or community schools that were hired/formed were ruled by the parents collectively. It is a relatively new phenomenon to have governments supplying education for families and forcing them to pay for it to boot, claiming that if everyone doesn’t chip in the public system will fail! The point is that civilization does not rise and fall on public education but on parents who make informed choices for their kids.

2. Even if the public system were to suffer, so what? What does educating your kids have to do with me? It’s not my responsibility to pay for your kids to go a public school! It’s my job to raise my kids and your job to raise yours. I don’t go to bed at night worrying about the educational choices other parents make. We have friends who home school, friends who public school, friends who private school, and friends who Christian school. That’s as much their choice as it is theirs to select what sports league their kids will be in. Like I said, my kids are mine! If I don’t want to send my kids to a public school, on what basis does it make sense for me to pay so that your kids can go?

3. Third, my money is my money! And while, as a citizen of Canada, it makes sense that I should be taxed for necessary expenditures like national defence, public versus faith-based schooling is not a matter of national defence. The Feds recognize this and so stay out of the debate. Other provinces allow for choice and do fine. Study after study shows that graduates of independent schools perform or even outperform their publicly-educated counterparts. So at the end of the day, what’s the big deal? Why can’t I choose to spend my money the way I wish?

4. My kids could be even better educated if the government would give me back my educational dollars. Whether you agree with my values or not, if I’m committed enough to pay for an independent school based on my values, does it not follow that I would do even more for my kids if I could have my money back? If McGuinty is really that committed to education, stop stonewalling! Then again, maybe “Christian kids” don’t really matter as much!

Mr. McGuinty has no more business in my kid’s education than he does in my bedroom! My suspicion though, is that McGuinty and his Liberals are simply opposed to full-fledged freedom of faith, full-fledged freedom of choice, and perhaps a tad bit controlling. Additionally, he has bent to liberal educators who simply want more money to spend on their kids, without consideration of mine. The Ministry of Education will accredit our school, but the government that controls them feels justified to double dip into my pocket for their own gain. Talk about selfish!

Faith based schooling has nothing to do with public interest in a free democracy. It’s not the Premier’s right to judge the merits of how and where we educate our kids (did I mention that they are ours?). His statement, "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,''' is both inappropriate and insulting. Dalton, it is my responsibility to raise my kids the way I see fit. Susie and I created them, feed them, teach them, nurture them and care for them. It is therefore my right to send them where I wish. If you’d so care, I’d be delighted to compare your grown children with mine in 20 or so years to see if they’re any worse for wear for the choices their mother and I have made.