A
Laval proposal to create a new public school with a specifically Greek
heritage program has repercussions that go far beyond Laval. This idea,
under study by the Commission scolaire de Laval, seems likely to demand
attention, and soon, across the Montreal metropolitan area.
The
idea raises some serious concerns, but is certainly an imaginative effort
to solve a problem, which can be summed up this way: Eager to get more
immigrant students into French schools, a former Parti Quebecois
government worked out a deal with the Greek community in Laval, Montreal
and on the South Shore. Five Greek private elementary schools would get
100 per cent government funding, provided they affiliated themselves with
French-language school boards, ensuring students learn plenty of French.
Private schools normally get only 60 per cent as much money per student as
public schools. They make up the balance by charging fees.
Last
year, the current Liberal government set off a firestorm of complaint by
quietly making a similar full-funding deal with Jewish schools. When the
government dropped that hot potato, it became clear the Greek schools'
deal, too, would need to be reassessed.
Now
the Commission scolaire de Laval, struggling with falling enrolment, wants
to lure students from the two private Greek schools in Laval - which
oversee three other satellite schools on Montreal Island the South Shore -
with something new: a French public school with a Greek heritage program.
