Ontario's publicly funded education system currently supports students from kindergarten to grade 12 in public, Catholic and French Immersion schools throughout the province. The Ontario Conservative government, if elected this fall, would move to provide public funding to Ontario's private Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Christian schools. "This is a plan that will bring faith-based schools, which currently exist outside of the public system inside that system instead, subject to clear, reasonable conditions," explains Ontario Conservative leader, John Tory.

To receive government funding, religious schools would have to agree to teach the Ontario curriculum, participate in its standardized testing and hire accredited teachers.

The Ontario Conservative government would set up a commission to determine how to integrate faith-based schools into the public system. Based on extensive consultation, they would launch a pilot project in the fall of 2008.

About 53,000 students attend private religious schools in Ontario. Tory estimates that including these schools in the public system would cost an additional $400 million a year.