Justice and Denominational Schooling

Abstract

Bernard Shapiro’s recommendations for extensive public funding of private schooling in Ontario would strongly affect the status of denominational schools in that province. Is increased access to denominational schools justified by Shapiro’s considerations of social justice? Shapiro in fact underestimates one of these considerations, failing to appreciate how it might be derived from the right of parents to religious liberty. But this argument fails in any case since the scope of parents’ religious liberty must be circumscribed by the child’s anticipatory autonomy rights. Due regard for such rights would at the very least require stringent state regulation of religious education in denominational schools. This regulation would have to be far more exacting than any envisioned by Shapiro.