Teachers’ union heartened as school budget rises
The head of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation says an ongoing labour dispute has taken a back seat to concerns around the COVID -19 pandemic, and praised the government’s decision to increase funding for education in its planned spending estimates.
While the Saskatchewan NDP has called Finance Minister Donna Harpauer’s plans, which come without revenue forecasts, a fantasy, STF president Patrick Maze acknowledged broad economic uncertainty but said he is treating the $42-million hike for school divisions as a commitment.
“I don’t know that $42 million (added to the $1.9-billion operational budget for the province’s 27 school divisions) is going to make a huge difference when we factor in things like inflation and enrolment and the complexities that we see in our classrooms,” Maze said Wednesday.
“At the same point, it’s a good start.”
The additional $42 million for school divisions is intended to cover inflation, enrolment growth and the added wage costs associated with the still-to-be-settled teachers’ collective agreement. The estimates do not include a specific solution for classrooms facing a shortage of resources.
The government has said previously that it would not achieve its aim of having a fix — developed without the STF, which has refused to participate on the grounds it wants the eventual solution enshrined in its next deal — ready for this year’s budget.
Asked why the estimates contain no funding for classroom resource issues, the finance minister said talks are ongoing.
“It’s not a challenge that happened overnight, and nor do I think it will be an overnight fix,” Harpauer told reporters during a news conference Wednesday morning in Regina, adding the province has previously put forward a $5-million fund to help solve the issue.
Maze, who ran unsuccessfully for the NDP in 2011, said the teachers’ federation believes $120 million over two years is needed to fix the problem.
The province’s 13,500 teachers have been locked in an increasingly bitter labour dispute with the government over wages and class composition — essentially ensuring teachers have the resources to meet some students’ diverse and increasingly complex needs — since last year.
Teachers voted 90.2 per cent in favour of sanctions last month — turnout was above 96 per cent — and announced job action on March 10, including cancelling extracurricular activities and not staying longer than 15 minutes before and after the school day.
Days later, amid a string of closures in response to the COVID -19 pandemic sweeping the globe, the provincial government announced the cancellation of all Kindergarten to Grade 12 classes effective March 20. Most parents pulled their kids out immediately.
While the job action is still technically in place, it is a moot point given there will be no students in classrooms by the end of the week. From the federation’s perspective, sanctions and collective bargaining are on the back burner while it concentrates on working with the sector on the pandemic response.
Maze said the federation’s priority is to ensure students and staff are safe, and negotiations can resume at some point in the future, once the sector has stabilized. It is important not only to teachers, but also to everyone else, that there isn’t unrest, he added.
The estimates also include $130 million in educational capital funding, including $8.5 million to begin planning seven new schools and three renovations. The government is also looking to build a new joint-use elementary school in Regina’s Harbour Landing and replace St. Frances Elementary in Saskatoon.