The education funding blame game

Sask. Party MLA says boards responsible for cuts at schools

If Saskatchewan children are being inadequately supported in the classroom, the fault is with the school boards, not the provincial government, according to a Saskatchewan Party MLA.

Lloydminster MLA Colleen Young, a former school board trustee, delivered that message in the legislature last week.

In a debate Thursday, Young said children’s lack of support “can only be laid back on school boards not making appropriate decisions which are in the best interest of students.”

Saskatchewan’s 28 school divisions receive the bulk of their funding from provincial operating grants.

The provincial government sets the mill rate for property taxes, which comprise more than onethird of funding for most school divisions.

Young’s comments came after NDP education critic Carla Beck’s condemnation of the government for “failing students.”

“I couldn’t believe my ears, frankly. It shows a real lack of understanding,” said Beck, who again raised the issue of education funding in Monday’s question period.

“This is not fearmongering, it’s not hyperbole, it’s not crying fire when there’s smoke,” said Beck.

“We’re at a tipping point. School boards and educators work really hard to keep those impacts out of the classroom … but what I’m hearing is they’re not able to do that anymore.”

The provincial government negotiated a contract with teachers three years ago; in its June budget, it opted to fund half of the negotiated raises.

Aside from capital funding for new school construction, the government’s classroom funding increased $572,000, or 0.04 per cent, in 2016-17 over the previous year.

There are about 750 schools and 176,000 students in the province.

Education Minister Don Morgan acknowledged the “difficult choices” school boards must make, but “the increases we’ve been giving them should be sufficient for what they’ve got.”

“We are not flippant about what support needs to go to the classrooms and who gets to make those decisions,” Young said in an interview.

“We support school boards strongly and have respect for the tough decisions they have to make, particularly in tough economic times.”

As Beck listed the challenges of some school divisions — including an overpopulated classroom in Regina and cuts of 74 classroom staff in Prairie Spirit School Division — she was interrupted by heckling: “Their choice.”

Other challenges school boards are facing include cuts to lunch programs, increased busing distances, and deteriorating and aging schools.

The latter is a problem for the Saskatoon Public School Board, which has five century-old schools and many others that need renovation.

For the third year in a row, the board had to dip into reserve funding to balance its budget. The 2016-17 school budget required $3 million.

“None of the cuts that we made are sustainable in the long term,” said board chair Ray Morrison, who is running unopposed in Wednesday’s election.

As more than 70 per cent of his division’s cost is salaries, “The big part of what we do affects the classroom.”

Both Young and Morgan pointed to school boards’ autonomy.

“School divisions do have the legislative authority to determine their staffing complements, the classroom supports that each of their local schools get within their school divisions,” Young said.

But Morrison pointed to the “awkward position” of school boards: “We don’t have the final say on the funding that school divisions get and we certainly don’t control the number of students that come to our system.”

Prairie Spirit school board chair Larry Pavloff was unavailable for an interview on Monday.

But in June, he suggested the government “bit(ing) the bullet” and raising taxes “because we don’t want our kids to suffer.”

At least 17 school divisions dipped into savings to fund the 2016-17 school year, including Regina Public Schools.

Morgan and Young pointed to the increases to education funding their government has made since 2007.

The operating grant awarded to school divisions has increased by 33 per cent, while enrolment has increased nine per cent.

But, said Beck, “A large portion of that is capital.”

We support school boards strongly and have respect for the tough decisions they have to make, particularly in tough economic times.