The President of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation is encouraged that the province appears to be listening when it comes to the need for sustainable funding for class size and complexity, and she invites the government to bring it to the bargaining table.
The provincial government announced a multi-year funding agreement with the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. It guarantees a base amount of long-term funding to school divisions, with a minimum of $356.6 million a year for four years.
Samantha Becotte notes that what she has heard is that local school boards were only given 24 hours to sign on. She explains that the STF wants the agreement included in their contract, because it would entrench the agreement between the province and the SSBA, meaning no funding could be reneged. The money would still go to school boards to be then go to school divisions, but the STF would like it to be in their contract, with a few stipulations added. They include needing assurances that Boards of Education cannot use these new funds for anything other than student supports as well as funding increases in line with enrolment and inflation. Becotte also lists a reporting mechanism to be included for transparency on how the funds are used and adjusting the terms to align with the dates of the provincial collective agreement.
When it comes to an increase of $180 million in the education budget as announced by the Premier earlier this week, Becotte believes this funding is a re-announcement of previous funding announcements. She gives the example of the $40 million in funding the government announced after the teachers’ rally at the Legislature last spring, which suggests is part of that $180 million, along with $7 million previously announced for Education Assistants, and $2.5 million for pilot projects on how to deal with complexity in classrooms.
She encourages everyone to ask the Minister of Education or the Premier for clarity on what is actually new money when you compare the total cost of education for the 2023-24 school year to what is budgeted for the 2024-25 school year, which begins in September.
