Guelph Tribune Re: Doug Hallett’s article about new plans for public schools in Guelph (Tribune, Sept. 29), I’d like to bring to light the following issue.

Christian schools in our community receive no government funding, and yet tens of millions of dollars are going into expanding the kindergarten program to full-time locally. The board’s proposing to build a second public school on Grange Road to aid Ken Danby school with their population size. Danby is less than a kilometre down the road from the proposed site. Need I mention that Holy Trinity Catholic School is situated right beside Ken Danby and is also funded by the government?

This is only one of the three schools the board’s making plans for in the east end. And this is just so that full-time kindergarten can be implemented?

Very few people know that an elementary school opened last fall in the old university area which doesn’t receive any government funding. Why? It’s a Christian school. Parents are spending hundreds of dollars a month to educate their children in a way that they see fit, according to their religious beliefs.

Why should a Catholic school receive full funding while still teaching religious classes, but Cornerstone Christian School is completely dependent on the payments from the parents and donations? Meanwhile, our tax dollars go into the Catholic and public schools. It’s just not right.

Meagan Nijenhuis (age 17)

Guelph

http://www.guelphtribune.ca/opinion/funding-shortchanges-private-christian-schools/