British Lord Proposes Faith Quotas In Religious Schools

In Great Britain last month, during debates in the House of Lords on the Education and Inspections Bill (2006), Lord Baker of Dorking proposed an amendment that would require any new school that has a religious character to set aside 30% of its seats for pupils who do not practice the religion of the school. Independent Catholic News today says that the Catholic Education Service (CES) is strongly opposed to the proposal. Backers of the proposal say it would promote social cohesion, but CES argues that instead it would undermine existing harmonious intergroup relationships.