Re: Tax dollars should only be used for public purposes, Dec. 3 edition.
Ms. Norton claims this funding would otherwise be used to fund the public system.
Independent schools like MEI get 50 per cent of what it costs Abbotsford School District to educate a student and none of what it costs to build the independent school buildings, yet the parents that send students to independent schools still pay school taxes as if they were using the public education system.
If the province were to discontinue partial funding to independent schools, those schools would be forced to drastically increase tuitions, making them unaffordable to most students and forcing those students back to the public system.
The province would then need to spend billions building new schools or buying unused independent schools and would need to pay twice as much to educate these students as they were when those same students were in the independent system.
Half the cost to educate and none of the cost for facilities. It seems to me that the taxpayers are getting a bargain with the independent school system just the way it is.
Colin Reimer
Abbotsford