Provincial government favours private schools, critics charge
Following the announcement of the 2024-25 provincial budget, Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) president Samantha Becotte said the Sask. Party government has a “deliberate goal of defunding public education.”
While the Government of Saskatchewan said in a statement Thursday it supports parental choice with respect to children's education, past comments have indicated a strong support for private education.
And NDP health and education critic Matt Love said he's concerned about discrepancies in funding provided to public and private schools.
“We've seen an eagerness in this government to offer massive increases to independent schools while starving the public systems,” said Love in an interview Thursday. He noted that numbers for this year aren't available but last year's budget saw a 25-per-cent increase to independent schools.
He then recalled former education minister Dustin Duncan saying the government is supportive of the expansion of certified and qualified independent schools in Saskatchewan.
“If the interest and the need arise from the public, the community, certainly this government is supportive of that and I am as well,” said Duncan during budget estimates on April 4, 2023.
There are currently 58 registered independent schools in Saskatchewan.
“I have no doubt that as we move forward, that is what we will see more of here in Saskatchewan and it just means we're going to have winners and losers amongst our kids, and that's not fair,” Becotte said Wednesday.
Love said this isn't the road he wants to see the province go down.
“The best opportunities we can offer our children and youth are in well-resourced, adequately and sustainably funded public, separate and French schools in Saskatchewan,” he said.
According to Love, issues of abuse have also been recorded in the province's independent schools, where there is less oversight on school practices and policies.
In October, a former Legacy Christian Academy athletics director pleaded guilty to the sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a student between 2008 and 2012. Charges against Aaron Travis Benneweis were laid after he turned himself in to Saskatoon police on Jan. 31 and in January 2024 he was sentenced to jail time of two years less a day.
Benneweis was one of four former school administrators charged criminally after former students filed a $25-million lawsuit in 2022.
As for the private education model as a whole, Love said: “I would hope that the future of education and schooling includes getting every student the resources they need to succeed in school and beyond.”
No further comments on the province moving toward a private education model were provided by the government.