Separate Schools for Jews of Montreal, if Negotiations with Protestants Fail

Montreal Jews may have their own schools by September of next year if negotiations with the Protestants fail, according to the latest agreement between the Quebec government and the Protestants. The Quebec government has just granted the demand of a delegation of Protestants to amend the school bill in such a manner that if the Jewish Commission will be unable to come to an arrangement with the Protestant Commission within a year, Jewish schools will automatically come into existence, and the Protestants will not be expected to receive Jewish children for the school year commencing September, 1931.

To exclude the possibility of an agreement with the Protestants and assure the creation of separate schools, the Jewish Separate School Committee has decided to send a memorandum to the government, demanding that it limit the powers of the Jewish School Commission with regard to negotiations with the Protestants. It is desired that the Jewish Commission should only have the right to conclude agreements in school districts with a small Jewish population, but that it should not have the right to conclude a general agreement for the education of Jewish children in Protestant schools.

This same committee, under the chairmanship of Louis Fitch, K. C., after analyzing the clauses of the bill, has decided to demand two other amendments: first, to amend the bill so as to give the Montreal Jewish School Commission rights equal to a committee in the Council of Public Instruction with full jurisdiction over curricula and text books; second, to abolish sections 71 and 72 of the act which gives the right to a majority of property owners to decide whether they desire separate Jewish schools or not.