Premier Dalton McGuinty has slammed Ontario Conservative Leader John Tory's pledge to try to extend public funding to private faith-based schools, saying it would not be a progressive move.

"If we're going to bring about more improvement in publicly funded schools, it is regressive to contemplate segregating our children according to their faith," McGuinty said at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa on Monday.

"I want our kids to continue coming together."

McGuinty's response comes almost a month after Tory promised that a Conservative government would set up a commission to figure out how to make religious schools fit into the public system if elected this fall.

A pilot program would start in the fall of 2008 based on the commission's recommendations.

Tory estimated that bringing all the province's religious schools under provincial jurisdiction would cost about $400 million each year.

About 53,000 Ontario students attend private religious schools.

The Ontario election is scheduled for Oct. 10.