Scott Rowed Exposes the Wedge Strategy of Alberta Faith Schools

Scott Rowed, leading figure of the nascent Alberta Center for Inquiry and tireless champion of secular schools in the province has published a brilliant op-ed piece in the Edmonton Journal today.
In “Gov’t surrendered choice to religious schools” Scott argues that the fundamentalist schools in the province are now poised to receive full funding from the Alberta government due to advantageous loopholes that also allow them to discriminate on religious grounds in their hiring practices. I won’t summarize the whole article here, but it is well worth reading in its entirety. He discusses examples from Canmore, Ft. McMurray and other places. A few choice excerpts:

The history of religious schools in Alberta is not one of open debate. These decisions have been made behind closed doors between government officials and religious leaders — no public participation welcome. The most recent example was a secret document uncovered by the media in December 2007, showing that the government planned to increase funding for private religious schools…

Parents who believe that the first cowboy saddled up a triceratops have more choice as their children can attend either a faith school or a public school. On the other hand, Christians who accept evolution, non-believers, and followers of other faiths can enrol their children only in a public school. Every teaching position in a Christian school means one more fundamentalist teacher, and another teacher is out of a job…

When the Catholic school started up in Canmore in 2001, they had to share Lawrence Grassi Middle School with the public school board. The Catholic board tried to build a wall in the school and a fence in the playground to stop their children from mixing with the public school kids. Only the diligence of public school officials stopped this.

It is a great bit, and hats off to the Edmonton Journal for publishing it!

Oh, you can read the whole thing here: “Gov’t surrendered choice to religious schools” or here: “Gov’t surrendered choice to religious schools“, so there’s no excuse not to.

The Centre for Inquiry is an international group that promotes critical thought, teaching of science and the promotion of secular values. They also have a discussion forum. The Alberta chapter does not have its own site yet, but the University of Alberta Atheists and Agnostics group is affiliated with them.

I have had a number of email exchanges with Scott, and exchanged a few digital epistles with Justin Trottier, CFI Ontario’s executive director.

At our atheists’ meeting on Sunday, I’m going to suggest that if we make a formal organization, we affiliate ourselves with CFI, and see if we can get a series of film-screening, lectures, etc. going on around town and at the university.

No doubt there will be letters in response to Scott’s article!