Bountiful seeks cash
 Commune must pass test
 
By Ethan Baron
Calgary Sun
 
VANCOUVER -- Another school in the Bountiful, B.C., polygamous commune has applied for public funding and will receive about $450,000 per school year if it passes inspection this fall. The Mormon Hills school has run for a year as a Group 3 unfunded independent school, qualifying it to apply for Group 1 funding, which is equivalent to half of what regular public schools receive.

Bountiful Elementary-Secondary, the other school in the community located 520 km southwest of Calgary, received $460,826 in public funds for its 136 students last year.

Mormon Hills school was created as a result of a schism in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon splinter group that runs the commune.

Former "Bishop of Bountiful" Winston Blackmore was ex-communicated by church "prophet" Warren Jeffs, whose followers control Bountiful Elementary-Secondary.

The Blackmore-controlled 131-pupil Mormon Hills school would start receiving public money at the end of January, said education ministry spokeswoman Corinna Filion.

Critics charge that both schools indoctrinate children with beliefs in polygamy and the inferiority of females, and teach students that church leaders have the right to control who goes how far in school, and what jobs young people can take afterward.

Mormon Hills will receive a "full-blown" inspection, Filion said.

"Concerns raised with regards to curriculum et cetera would be part of that inspection," she said.

Sara MacIntyre, the B.C. director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said if the school passes the inspection, British Columbians shouldn't worry about paying for the school.

Meanwhile, the B.C. Human Rights tribunal said Friday it will hear a case alleging the province allowed discrimination to flourish in Bountiful.

Four provincial ministries are accused of failing to protect girls from abusive practices at the colony near Creston.
 
CalgarySun.com
Originally published September 6, 2004
 
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