The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) expressed disappointment with the provincial budget Wednesday, saying its bump in education spending won't keep the province from having the lowest per-student spending.In 2015-16, Saskatchewan had the highest school board operating spending per-student in the country, according to Statistics Canada. By 2021-22, it had fallen to eighth place, representing a reduction of 20.7% or $3,362 less per student, after adjustment for inflation.This preliminary analysis reveals that to maintain per-student funding at the 2015-16 level, per-student spending would need to increase by another 12%, which translates to an additional $268 million on top of the already announced $180 million. “Since the premier made the unusual move of announcing education funding two weeks prior to budget day, we have had time to dig into the numbers,” says STF President Samantha Becotte. “Instead of showing a real commitment to improve student learning conditions and teacher working conditions, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill and Premier Scott Moe are making things worse and that’s tremendously discouraging. Students, families and teachers deserve transparency, accountability and predictability in their publicly-funded schools, all of which are sorely lacking from this government.” According to Premier Scott Moe’s announcement on March 6, school operating funding will increase from $2 billion in 2023-24 to $2.2 billion in 2024-25, representing an increase of 8.8% or $180 million.The STF says as a percentage of total education funding, supports for learning have declined over time, from 15.1% in 2017-18 to 14% in 2024-25. The STF says although such funds are intended to address critical class size and complexity issues, this budget line is currently unrestricted. This means that school boards can choose to use these funds for other purposes, such as servicing debt, instead of being used to assist students with their learning needs.Teachers are adamant that restricting these funds to their intended use is essential to hold government and school boards accountable and the best way to achieve this is within the language of a provincial collective agreement. “We have no assurance that this year’s funding increases will continue in non-election years, and in fact, past precedent suggests that it will not,” says Becotte. “Saskatchewan’s teachers are once again bringing our concerns straight to government’s front steps, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to current and future students’ needs. Government needs to make the needs of students a priority and fulfill their responsibility of supporting public education.” More than 4,000 teachers picketed around the legislature the morning the budget was released. The STF says that since January 1, more than 3,000 emails have been sent to decision-makers in government and school boards, calling on them to bargain in good faith with teachers.The STF insists that guarantees on classroom size and complexity must be included in their contract with the province. The union gave the province a deadline of 3 pm Wednesday to agree to binding arbitration on the issue, the the province declined.As a result, the STF will carry out plans to deny extracurricular help to students on Thursday and Friday. Doing so will cancel the province's annual high school basketball tournament of Hoopla, as it did in 2020.In response to a query from Western Standard, the Sask Party government said Friday: "The interprovincial comparisons provided by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation are not representative of actual K-12 per student operating funding and are not provided on an ‘apples to apples’ basis. For instance – they appear to be including capital and other sector spending for other provinces while using only school operating funding for Saskatchewan."Below, charts from the STF compare per-student funding among provinces.
The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) expressed disappointment with the provincial budget Wednesday, saying its bump in education spending won't keep the province from having the lowest per-student spending.In 2015-16, Saskatchewan had the highest school board operating spending per-student in the country, according to Statistics Canada. By 2021-22, it had fallen to eighth place, representing a reduction of 20.7% or $3,362 less per student, after adjustment for inflation.This preliminary analysis reveals that to maintain per-student funding at the 2015-16 level, per-student spending would need to increase by another 12%, which translates to an additional $268 million on top of the already announced $180 million. “Since the premier made the unusual move of announcing education funding two weeks prior to budget day, we have had time to dig into the numbers,” says STF President Samantha Becotte. “Instead of showing a real commitment to improve student learning conditions and teacher working conditions, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill and Premier Scott Moe are making things worse and that’s tremendously discouraging. Students, families and teachers deserve transparency, accountability and predictability in their publicly-funded schools, all of which are sorely lacking from this government.” According to Premier Scott Moe’s announcement on March 6, school operating funding will increase from $2 billion in 2023-24 to $2.2 billion in 2024-25, representing an increase of 8.8% or $180 million.The STF says as a percentage of total education funding, supports for learning have declined over time, from 15.1% in 2017-18 to 14% in 2024-25. The STF says although such funds are intended to address critical class size and complexity issues, this budget line is currently unrestricted. This means that school boards can choose to use these funds for other purposes, such as servicing debt, instead of being used to assist students with their learning needs.Teachers are adamant that restricting these funds to their intended use is essential to hold government and school boards accountable and the best way to achieve this is within the language of a provincial collective agreement. “We have no assurance that this year’s funding increases will continue in non-election years, and in fact, past precedent suggests that it will not,” says Becotte. “Saskatchewan’s teachers are once again bringing our concerns straight to government’s front steps, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to current and future students’ needs. Government needs to make the needs of students a priority and fulfill their responsibility of supporting public education.” More than 4,000 teachers picketed around the legislature the morning the budget was released. The STF says that since January 1, more than 3,000 emails have been sent to decision-makers in government and school boards, calling on them to bargain in good faith with teachers.The STF insists that guarantees on classroom size and complexity must be included in their contract with the province. The union gave the province a deadline of 3 pm Wednesday to agree to binding arbitration on the issue, the the province declined.As a result, the STF will carry out plans to deny extracurricular help to students on Thursday and Friday. Doing so will cancel the province's annual high school basketball tournament of Hoopla, as it did in 2020.In response to a query from Western Standard, the Sask Party government said Friday: "The interprovincial comparisons provided by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation are not representative of actual K-12 per student operating funding and are not provided on an ‘apples to apples’ basis. For instance – they appear to be including capital and other sector spending for other provinces while using only school operating funding for Saskatchewan."Below, charts from the STF compare per-student funding among provinces.
