To the Editor:
It has now been revealed in the Legislature the Premier's wrong-headed Lean pet project isn't just confined to health care.
The education ministry is spending at least $1.2 million for Lean consultants, and that's not even counting all the time and resources of teachers, staff and administration of school divisions.
The government says its education plan is a kaizen Lean- plan. This is concerning for me as well as many teachers, students and parents throughout the province because of the negative impact that lean has already had on our health system.
As a part of this plan, the government is imposing a Lean clawback that will immediately rip funding out of our schools. The government is also putting Saskatchewan's education system in a fiscal straitjacket by capping education funding after the next budget, locking in inadequacies.
Today, classes are complex, overcrowded and under-resourced - and there are far too few supports like educational assistants in those classrooms to ensure students have the one-on-one attention they deserve. Capping funding at an insufficient level will stick Saskatchewan kids with a status quo that is not good enough.
The government is diverting education dollars away from our kids and into the pockets of Lean consultants. Meanwhile, the basics aren't being met in classrooms throughout the province and school divisions are being forced to make Lean cutbacks.
Lean was invented in a car factory, and while years of those cars are being recalled, we only have one chance to get it right with Saskatchewan students. It's past time this government start improving what really matters to students.
Trent Wotherspoon, NDP Deputy Leader and Education critic.
