His remarks quickly drew fire from the Liberal government.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne, who is running against Mr.
Tory in the Toronto riding of Don Valley West, accused him of
not thinking through his campaign pledge.
"The reason that private schools exist is that they don't
want to be part of the publicly funded system ... We allow that
in Ontario. We allow that freedom," Ms. Wynne said in an
interview.
"In terms of public dollars, those public dollars should go
into a curriculum that has been agreed upon as being the one
that is the best for our kids and is rooted in science and is
rooted in evidence."
The creation-evolution debate has been a perennial theme in
the U.S. education system, where Christian groups want
creationism taught in the classroom over evolution. Creationists
reject the Darwinian evolution theory, and believe that every
word in the Book of Genesis is literally true.
Roman Catholic schools, who come under Ontario's public
education umbrella, do explore creationism, but only in religion
class. Evolution is taught elsewhere in the curriculum.
In clarifying his remarks yesterday, Mr. Tory said: "The
Ontario curriculum teaches evolution and that is the curriculum
that would have to be taught in the faith-based and all other
schools that receive public funding. There are other theories
that can be taught as part of religious instruction ... But the
curriculum is the curriculum."
Mr. Tory has released few details of his plan to extend
funding to private religious schools. He is leaving that up to a
commission that won't meet until after the election.
Still, the issue has dominated the agenda even before the
campaign officially kicks off Monday. Mr. Tory wants to extend
taxpayer funding to all religious schools, not just Roman
Catholic ones - a move Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said
would threaten the stability of the public education system.
On the unofficial campaign trail yesterday, Mr. Tory lashed
out at critics, saying this is not the time for fear mongering.
He said that he envisions one school bus picking up children on
a particular street and dropping them off to different schools.
"I also want to see a day when these kids from the
faith-based schools are playing basketball with the kids in the
public school," he said at the Kamin Education Centre, a private
Jewish school.
"And I ask this question of people, do they think if it's a
good thing for kids to play basketball with each other ... it's
more likely to happen with these schools included in public
education or outside the tent where they are today? I say it
will happen if they are included as part of public education."
Annie Kidder, a spokeswoman for People for Education, said
yesterday she was frustrated that the focus in this election
campaign is on private schools entering the public system, and
not on fixing public education.
"We're already now getting into the details about what will
be taught in religious schools. We've put the cart very far
ahead of the horse," she said.
"It's frustrating and it allows us to avoid much more
important ... exploration that I really think we need right now
in Ontario."