Editor:
Re: Burnaby private schools excluded from city’s bursary program, NOW News
Regarding your article in today’s NOW, the province has long fallen victim to private schools - most of them with a very specific religious affiliation that I won’t name here - dipping their hands into public coffers. It is wholly appropriate for the City of Burnaby to disqualify private schools from publicly funded bursaries.
Dianne Doyle admits that students at her private institution have “thousands of dollars of bursaries on an ongoing basis” available already — programs that are available to the families of students who agree to abide by their religious beliefs and/or practices, but are not awarded to secular families or those affiliated with other faiths.
No one should be able to play by separate rules. Sadly, we already have a two-tier educational system, one that hamstrings public teachers while handing big subsidies to private schools.
In sum, council has this one right. If the church folk want to give more help to their already well-supported kids, let them do it themselves.
Jason Kurylo, Burnaby
