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Government Grants for Minority Schools Recommended in Manitoba

December 11, 1959
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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The Manitoba Royal Commission has recommended in its final report to the provincial government that private schools be given government grants to help meet their operating and capital costs.

If the government will adopt the recommendations of the Royal Commission, it will cover half of the operating costs of such schools as the day schools operated by the Talmud Torah and the Yiddish I. L. Peretz school here.

The Royal Commission recommended that the moneys be allocated to a specially appointed Private Schools Grant Commission which would, in turn, allocate the money to the schools in two parts: for operating purposes on a per-teacher basis, and for capital costs.

“Practical application of the principles of democracy requires that whenever possible the majority be tolerant enough to provide for significant minorities the kind of education they want for their children,” states the report, “It is essential to give these alternative schools the greatest freedom possible to experiment and to challenge the methods, achievements, attitudes and standards in the public schools.”

The Royal Commission also recommended greater emphasis on religious and moral training in public schools, “but recognizes the difficulty of making religious education compulsory in public schools. It recommended optional courses in religious studies for all grades at the option of local school boards, and would request Jewish, Protestant and Catholic committees to formulate a syllabus in each grade for the programs of religious study of each of the denominations.”

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