Sask. gov't announces $40M for school divisions, teacher's federation says it's not enough

The Saskatchewan government announced Thursday that it's giving an additional $40 million to the province's school divisions to support enrolment growth and "the complexity of today's classrooms" in the 2023-24 year.

The move comes after teachers called for more money to keep up with inflation, enrolment and the complex needs of some students.

The Saskatchewan Federation of Teachers (STF) told CBC News Thursday afternoon that it's very disappointed with the amount of funding.

"The premier and the [education] minister said we've been heard after the rally for public education where over 3,500 people gathered," said STF president Samantha Becotte.

"And $40-million is simply not enough to meet the needs of schools and students in Saskatchewan."

Becotte highlighted a report from the Fraser Institute that said per-student funding in Saskatchewan has seen the province go from first among provinces in 2012-13 to sixth in 2019-20. It said an increase of more than $400 million would be needed to restore per-student funding to what it was in 2012-13.

Becotte said the STF does not expect the province to get to $400 million right away, but that the government needs to get serious about getting to that number, as inflation and enrolment increases continue to hit schools hard. 

The province's $40 million will be split in two, with $20 million to address enrolment growth and $20 million to hire classroom and other support staff.

"This funding will be provided to school divisions to hire resources such as teachers, educational assistants, speech language pathologists, counsellors, educational psychologists or other supports as required," the province said in a news release.

But Becotte said that money will not go far.

"We have 27 school divisions. If you divide that evenly, which we know it's not likely going to be divided evenly among all of the school divisions, they're getting less than $1 million [for new hiring]. Essentially you're going to get less than 10 professionals per school division."

Education Minister Dustin Duncan announced the funding news at Bishop Filevich Ukrainian Bilingual School in Saskatoon Thursday afternoon while surrounded by children in the gymnasium. 

He said the province will review extra funding needs as time goes on. 

"We're certainly willing to work with [the school divisions] to ascertain if this a function of two years of COVID, where we had no immigration, and so now we're seeing this high influx of new students because we're getting through a backlog of immigration … or is this the new norm?" Duncan told reporters following the announcement. 

Becotte said the STF was not informed about the announcement of the $40 million until 2 p.m. CST Thursday. 

Meanwhile, the province said the funding for school divisions this year is a record.

"This 4.5 per cent increase in school operating when compared to last year is part of the government's commitment to ensuring students all across the province have access to high quality education," said Duncan.