Faith Based Students: Second Class Kids?

Nice article from a young man named Omar Soliman in today's Globe & Mail regarding faith-based school funding. He's yet another faith-based school alumni who seems to have adusted to the "real world" just fine.

"I was a second-class student in Ontario.

Tell me, Mr. McGuinty, how do you create a "knowledge economy" that breeds "creativity" and "excellence" (your words) when you are unwilling to elevate the educational standards of 53,000 Ontario students who are receiving this same second-class education?

And yet, there was Deputy Premier George Smitherman suggesting that, because it would cost an extra $100-million, funding for these students is not warranted. This, from the same minister whose response to the ailments of our health system was to increase its budget by $11-billion since 2003. During Mr. McGuinty's time in office, public education funding rose from $9.4 billion in 2003 to $12.8 billion in 2007. So don't tell me the money doesn't exist.

Still, some Liberals will continue to make the very conservative argument that, on balance, all social policy is somehow inherently or deliberately exclusive.

When Mr. McGuinty says funding religious private schools is tantamount to "segregation," I first try to ignore the irony that this word invokes. And then I turn to my Muslim friends who graduated from my Islamic school and who are now in law, medicine, teaching, business and, yes, even our armed forces. I turn to my four brothers: two doctors, one lawyer and a future investment banker.

And then I wonder: Since when did it become too expensive or too dangerous to uphold equality? What happened to the idea of accommodating or celebrating diversity?"

Makes me smile... 'cause before he went back to school, Omar used to work for Warren at Daisy Group. ;-)

(guess the kid learned a thing or two about throwing a good political punch...)