AIBU to think it's outrageous...

[JoniRules]

That some catholic parents receive a travel subsidy so that they can send their children to catholic school.

I was listening to radio 4 this morning and they happened to have a piece on this. Apparently some councils are going to be making cuts and stopping subsidies for travel. It applys to those children in rural areas, and if the nearest catholic school is miles away the parents can apply for travelling expenses.
The parents they talked about paid £300 out of their own pockets, but without the subsidy they would have to pay almost £1000 in travelling expenses. So the council is paying £700....I was actually quite surprised at this as i didn't even know that this existed, and do find it outrageous that this has been going on. How can this be right?
The interviewer then asked the parent (dad), that a lot of people would be saying something along the lines of, 'if you choose to send your child to a faith school then you should pay for that'.
The dad then replied something along the lines of, that the council cuts were like a 'tax on faith'....I'm like 'what?!'
Why should parents receive a subsidy on the gournds of faith? Actually i don't think I am being unreasonable...It's made me feel a bit angry..

Rant over

i've no idea. my parents chose to send us to a school 10 miles away and it cost them a fortune. their choice though. i wonder if someone would help me send mine to atheist school, should such a thing be available. somehow i doubt it.

Exactly, why can't we all apply for travel subsidies to our chosen schools, faith or non-faith. Why is it only for faith schools? Rhetorical question

seems very unfair if it's only for catholics

afaik people don't get any kind of subsidy to send their child to a non-faith school if they aren't religious, or to send them to a christian school if their local school is non-denominational.

so no, yanbu IMO

Does it work in reverse? If my village school is a faith school and I'm atheist, could I get a bus pass to the nearest non-faith school?

I taught briefly at a school where this happened (was not a long journey, either, mile and a half I should think) and I assumed the church paid

TBH I don't know if it was only catholic children, it could also be children of other faiths also. I think the piece focused specifically on catholicism.

Xd with thisisyesterday . I guess not then?

I have no problem with it. I should imagine that this rule would apply to not just Catholic schools (Welsh language/Muslim/Jewish), and whilst there are still faith schools, then children should have access to them.

Yanbu
The whole faith school system stinks and is very unfair.

Shallishanti - in this piece it was very clear that the council paid for the subsidy, and that they would be cutting it in the near future, which IMO is a good thing. In fact the lady from the council did say that the monies saved would be used towards special needs children.

Iwantscallops - For most of us, especially in densely populated areas we have to (are advised) to apply for the school for which we are in the catchment for, to have a chance of getting in. i.e the nearest school. If I then chose to send my child to a school, for example, 5 miles away say a private school, would it be right that I could apply for a subsidy for my travel expenses? If you choose to send your child to a faith school that miles away then I really think you ought to pay for it, not make everyone else pay.

If a faith (or other) group wishes to make a school specialist so they can select the children to attend then they should pay the travel costs.

I pay £300 a year for DD1 to travel to a catholic school but I only pay because we're not catholic. The catholic children don't pay anything and I presume their travel is paid for by the church. I had no idea that my DD's travel was subsidised by the council and I have no idea why it would cost that much anyway. Using public transport would only cost just over £300!

I think if a child is sent to private school then their parents should foot the bill as it's their choice. I realise it is a choice to send your child to a faith school, but believe that we should respect the wishes of people who, in their lives, religion/language, etc. plays a huge part.

do you think transport should be council funded for parents who wish to send their children out of catchment in order to avoid them going to a faith school too Iwantscallops?

Iwantscallops - Clearly it is hugely important to some parents that their child attends a faith school only every kind of level. But it also really important for some parents to send their children to priavte school or to non-faith school. I'm really trying to get what you're saying and I can see that if you live somewhere rural and your nearest faith school is 10 miles away or something then it is a bit of an issue, but I still believe that the parents or the church via the school should pay, surely not the council.

AllDirections I think the family in the radio piece must have lived in the countryside which thus entailed lots of driving. I don't know how it could cost that much but it was very clear that that's how much it cost! But what you've written just reiterates the unfairness of it all, you have to pay because you are not catholic but your child goes to a catholic school, but the other children don't....

TheSecondComing - funny name...anyway no i don't get it. What 'special circumstance'? explain please

This is happening where I live. We only have one faith secondary school in the county so they argue (the parents) that the catchment for that school is, in fact, the whole island. The council is saying that they will have to end the subsidy - which TBH I agree with but then, I disagree with faith schools unless we can have non-faith/secular schools.

It is interesting here too as the council is also considering closing one of the primary schools in the county - which will remove the option of parents in that entire (rural) end of the county from having a non-Christian school option at all for their primary aged children. Perhaps the council is going to have to use the savings from not paying for the secondary kids to be bused to their faith school and have to pay for primary school kids to be bused to a non-Christian school.

OddBoots, yes I do. I respect that some people have a faith and some people don't. I do believe that if you strongly don't want your child to go to faith school, then they shouldn't.

Why can't the Vatican Bank stump up?

i went to grammar school and my transport was free, payed by council

I've read a similar thing about travel being cut but to a CofE school, the school in question is the highest in the league tables locally but is situated in a not so brilliant area. I think very few of the children who go there are very religious, it's just a con so the school can cherry pick the pupils they want and the parents can pick the school they want. I'm very dubious about any of it being funded out of taxpayers money so IMO cutting transport subsidies is a step in the right direction.

I think there is a wider issue here about how oversubscribed our schools are, how faith schools can dictate their own admissions policies, how messed up the whole admissions thing is getting anyway.