NDP gives province failing grade for school support amid affordability crisis

In the midst of end-of-year school assessments, NDP Education Critic Matt Love has a grade for the province’s education minister.

“It’s a big, whopping F,” Love said Friday, speaking to reporters outside Aden Bowman Collegiate, where Love himself taught for about a decade.

Love said he chose to switch from teaching to politics as a way to make changes for students and his community.

“From the day that this disastrous budget was released by Scott Moe and the Sask. Party government, everyone with a vested interest in our classrooms has been speaking out about what this budget will mean,” Love said.

The critic said he wants to see an emergency fund put together to aid schools that are having to recoup financial losses through parents as a result of rising inflation costs.

The failing grade Love assigned to Education Minister Dustin Duncan comes from a lack of support from the Saskatchewan government for school funding, Duncan’s minimizing of inflation’s impact on school budgets, and the lack of immediate government action, Love said.

The government’s approach is out of touch, Love added, forcing schools to make a total of 41 projected cuts to staff in the Saskatoon Public and Greater Saskatoon Catholic school divisions.

As schools are put in the “troubling position” of having to pass on costs from projected deficits to parents in the form of lunch supervision fees, Love said students in the classroom are suffering.

“Inflation does affect everything the school divisions purchase,” Love said, noting the four largest divisions in the province spent nearly $30 million on transportation alone last year. “Of course inflation will be affecting that.”

The suggestion by Premier Scott Moe that schools should simply continue to dip into reserve funds is uninformed, Love said, as divisions have already been resorting to their reserves for years.

“We know exactly what impact inflation is having on our school boards,” Love said.

Retired music teacher Tannis Schmidt speaks to media on June 17, 2022. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

Retired teachers Kevin and Tannis Schmidt, who joined Love at his news conference, said they’re distressed over the financial crisis facing schools still emerging from the crippling COVID-19 pandemic.

Kevin noted his “profound disappointment” in what he said was the dismissive attitude the government showed about financial concerns in schools.

“Premier Moe stepped off the plane (last week) and immediately made the comment, ‘They should just go into reserves,’ ” said Kevin, who taught for 22 years in three different school divisions in the province.

“We have very, very dedicated people on those school boards, and they were ignored. They’re dismissed.”

Tannis said there is a lack of understanding from the government about school finances, despite having heard outcry from various education experts and stakeholders since the budget was released that the numbers do not sufficiently cover the needs of students and teachers.

“We need to become a pro-education province,” Tannis said.

“Our kids are falling behind in many ways. (That includes) academically, but also when it comes to their mental health and well-being,” Love shared.

The NDP education critic added his party has made several calls for the government to provide relief to Saskatchewan people — at the gas pumps and through other measures.

“People need support, and instead of support, this government has piled on 32 new taxes and fees,” Love said.

During an interview with Gormley earlier in the week, Duncan said the government could look at options for additional funding for schools, possibly through windfall revenue from high resource prices, but didn’t make any commitments.

“We’re going to have to decide as a province what that looks like in providing those supports,” Duncan said.

Duncan said the ministry will have open conversations with school boards and teachers’ associations about their options.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Steve Seto