Saskatchewanians do care about education.
In a recent survey released by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF), education was rated at 4.44 out of a possible 5 in importance to quality of life by Saskatchewan residents, second only to healthcare, with 4.63/5.
Two-thirds of respondents gave education the highest ranking possible, meaning that above all other possible responses, the people of Saskatchewan believed that education is the most important factor in quality of life in our province.
If I had taken the survey, education would be high on my list as well.
The Saskatchewan budget release on April 10 included $30 million for education funding. This follows Premier Scott Moe’s announcement of an additional $7.5 million back in February.
This is great to see from the Saskatchewan government as they start to put investments back into education, says Patrick Maze, president of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation.
But there is still more to be done, he says. What will be done for the future of education funding is still unclear.
Education funding is still $54 million short of last year’s levels, after cuts that came in the last budget.
How are schools going to function without those extra funds?
Education Minister Gord Wyant is quoted in a recent StarPheonix article saying that increases to education spending must happen within “the context of a balanced budget.”
How does that parse with the promise to add more funds? Does it mean that education funding will land somewhere in the region it was before the 2017 budget cuts.
And what happens when the Saskatchewan Party’s meets it plan of a balanced budget by 2019-2020?
A lack of funding could mean increasing problems within Saskatchewan schools.
Last year, Saskatchewan has gained 2,500 students and lost 188 teachers, according to an STF report on the 2018 budget.
“With more students and fewer teachers, today’s budget won’t make it any easier to meet the needs of students,” said Maze in the release.
At a ratio of 12.42 students per one teacher, Horizon School Division is only the fourth lowest student to teacher ratio across the province. The provincial average is 14.08 students per one teacher.
This may not sound like much but during a recent legislative debate, Carla Beck, MLA for Regina Lakeview, says that Regina Public Schools need an additional 110 teachers to “maintain class sizes and basic levels of support.”
While teachers are the ones feeling the strain within the K-12 educational institutions, students are getting the short straw when it comes to education funding for post-secondary education.
Even before the budget came out, University of Saskatchewan Provost and Vice-President of Academics Tony Vannelli sent a message to students saying that tuition rates will increase by 4.8 per cent starting in the 2018-2019 school year.
These tuition increases are happening despite an increase of $729 million, or 1.5 per cent, increase to post-secondary funding throughout Saskatchewan.
In both cases, the university is receiving increases in revenue from two places, the government and students, with what seems like a disregard for costs to the students themselves.
One of the ways the Board of Governors decides tuition increases is “accessibility and affordability for the majority of potential students,” according to the University of Saskatchewan website.
This is not a way that we should be deciding educational costs, especially when it comes to ensuring the accessibility of education in the province.
For both K-12 and post-secondary education, it will be the students that suffer from funding issues.
