Thread by @steve_boots

Since the SP took power, education in this province has changed dramatically, but also quietly. Most of those changes have come about as a direct result of a massive erosion in funding. How’d it happen? How has the government convinced people this is okay? Join me for a thread…

The SP took power in 2007. What did education funding look like then? Well, it was regional. School Boards set local property tax rates to meet local needs. The Sask Party had a huge problem with this. Because it meant that urban divisions had access to larger pools of funds.

Sask has always had an urban-rural split, which the SP exploited to gain power. Playing on the idea of urban school being much wealthier made them political hay. But, like everything they do, it doesn’t really tell the tale. Urban divisions need more money, for a lot of reasons.

Chief among these is that inequality, poverty, hunger, and marginalization are all more prevalent in cities than in rural areas. Education in a city costs more because populations in urban areas have different needs.

For a better explanation check out this article from the Atlantic, but what it boils down to is, locally determined funding is necessary, because the needs of students vary widely.

theatlantic.com/education/arch…

Rural divisions in SK have different, complex needs too. Those in need of special support often can’t access them, because they aren’t cost-effective. In the north, things like transportation and stable internet can be serious issues.

We have school boards specifically to make these decisions. But the SP basically took away their teeth. For years, local boards could change the education property tax rate for their area, to meet funding needs. In 2009 the govt centralized the system.

saskatchewan.ca/-/media/news-a…

All education tax dollars just got dumped into general revenue. Per-student funding was equalized across the province. All under the banner of urban-rural equality. What it actually amounted to was a modest transfer of funds to rural divisions, and an overall cut.

And the government totally knew what it was doing. The most absurd part was when they commissioned a funding review, but specifically prevented the review board from commenting on whether or not funding was sufficient. They didn’t even want to know.

saskatchewan.ca/-/media/news-a…

“But Steve” you say, “Education funding is at an all time high! Our government says so!” Well, my first piece of advice is to stop believing literally any statistic our government cites. They’re masters of lying using numbers. They do it often.

saskatchewan.ca/government/new…

In reality the picture is much much worse. I never thought I’d cite the Fraser Institute, but they already did all the legwork and paints an incredibly damning picture of education funding in SK, so I’m going to share some charts. Source:

fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/…

At first blush, things seem promising. Funding is up, right? And this is what the SP does, they focus on the (often very small) positives. Highest education funding ever! Look how great we are! But of course, you already know it’s not the whole story.

And this is where things begin to unravel. Funding climbed 0.7% from 2014-2019, but enrollment rose by 5.5%. My stats skills are lacking, but that amounts to about 9000 new enrolments that went unfunded.

And this is where we reach the chart that should make you furious. Not just upset, but angry. Adjusted for inflation and price changes, per-student funding has been slashed by 10.8% in Sask since 2014. There is no comment I can make that can capture how devastating that is.

So how does this happen? How does the government simultaneously slash the money ACTUALLY going into education while claiming to be fabulously generous to education, like in the press release below? It’s simple. Capital.

saskatchewan.ca/government/new…

Basically all funding growth has gone to capital. And while I fully agree that Sask schools are in dire need of capital investment, buildings don’t teach students. Our government gives generous contracts to construction companies (aka donors) to build these schools.

Our government does this in every sector. They create the appearance of public spending on public programs, while in reality they use public funds to enrich private industry. It is unacceptable, and it’s essential that we shine a light on it.

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