Educators and parents alike have reason to be suspicious about the secretive behind-the-scenes activities by the Ministry of Education as they completely overhaul the public education system in Saskatchewan, with the growing fear that the system may be more dismantled than changed when it's all said and done.
The government had initially proposed removing the locally-elected school boards, but relented on that proposal — but now they have set up four committees to look in detail at every aspect of how school divisions run the K-12 primary and secondary education system, with the fear that while local school boards can still be elected, they may end up with little or no actual powers when it comes to running their school division.
School trustees and board chairs are frustrated with the process, because they have pointed out they don’t know what is happening, and are not being apprised of policy changes or decisions as they’re being made.
As one local trustee pointed out, school boards are being told that they are being included in the process, but are subsequently being left in the dark. The fear is that the changes will be unveiled and the government will say this was done with school board input, but up to this point, this is simply not the case.
Local trustees have also had to sign non-disclosure agreements so that none of the discussions underway about public education are told to the press, or in turn, to the public whose children are being educated in K-12 schools.
School boards already had a major piece of control taken away from them when the government assumed control of setting mill rates for education property taxes, which has always been a basic part of how local governments operate. Cities and towns can set the mill rates for their own needs, but the education half of the tax bill is completely in the government’s hands — and to make it worse, the local governments are the ones who have to collect those taxes on behalf of the government.
Now there are major changes on the way, but no one knows whether local school boards will have any ability left to administrate and run local schools once it’s all said and done, and the public and the school trustees they elected have no say about those changes.
The bottom line, the most important aspect of this whole process, are the children, and giving our children the best possible education so they can go on to lead productive lives as adults, and be our future leaders, parents and taxpayers of Saskatchewan. Are their needs being looked after here? That remains to be seen. — Greg Nikkel
