It can be argued the Saskatchewan Party government hasn’t yet got school funding right, but it can also be argued no previous government has, either.
Sask. Party supporters likely have a point when they suggest it’s galling for today’s New Democrats to complain about school overcrowding when it was their predecessor’s government that closed 176 schools from 1992 until August 2007.
Moreover, the Sask. Party further argues that with population stagnation during most of the NDP government years, the NDP should be blamed for creating a situation where new schools in Saskatchewan were not needed.
It’s good political rhetoric, but, as often the case with political rhetoric, it doesn’t perfectly reflect all of the reality.
More importantly, none of this political back and forth is doing much to address the new and old problems in both rural and urban Saskatchewan when it comes to addressing our schools’ needs.
Since the days when the one-room rural schoolhouses ended more than 50 years ago (yes, I am old enough to have attended one), it’s been a slow march towards closing schools in small towns.
That’s simply all party of the reality of larger, mechanized farms affecting not only farm populations but also small rural town and even small city populations.
So while it’s true that 176 Saskatchewan schools were closed during the NDP government’s 16-year tenure, it’s also true that schools have been closing during the past 80 years under the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation/NDP, Liberal, Progressive Conservative and, yes, even during the Sask. Party government years.
It should be noted that in the 11-year tenure of this Sask. Party government, there are 31 schools that have been closed.
However, even that number badly needs to be put in some context.
First, let us acknowledge that under the Sask. Party government, we saw the opening 46 new schools (a few of them, replacements for the schools that have closed).
This government has also renovated or expanded 23 schools and has provided 172 portable classrooms added since 2013 alone.
But it’s highly significant that most of those schools are in the cities that have enjoyed the lion’s share of Saskatchewan’s 160,000-person increase since the Sask. Party government came to power in 2007.
The problem, however, is we now have 70 Saskatchewan schools that exceed 100 per cent capacity — 20 are at more than 120 per cent overcapacity.
Again, this is mostly a city problem, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have big school problems in rural Saskatchewan, as well.
It was revealed by the Regina Leader-Post’s Arthur White-Crummey that rural school divisions are being underfunded.
The Chinook School Division in the southwest is running a $4.8-million deficit this year — its fifth consecutive year of deficit budgeting. Meanwhile, the Prairie Valley School Division is expecting a $1.1-million deficit and the North East School says it will have to dip into its reserves to make up for a $2.5-million shortfall.
Part of this can surely be attributed to not collecting as much in education property tax on farmland since the Sask. Party came to power.
And while rural school enrolment may be declining, there are added expenses for rual divisions like bussing costs (which may get even more costly because of the carbon tax).
Moreover, because education funding is doled out on a per-student basis, 60 per cent of the $26-million education funding increase in 2019-20 provincial budget is being swallowed up by Regina and Saskatoon.
This now has some rural divisions pushing back, asking the government to change to the funding formula.
But to do so would worsen the situation for city schools that are struggling with growth problems.
The Sask. Party government needs to find a way to get education funding right.
