Sask. government adds $20M to education budget

The Government of Saskatchewan is contributing an additional $20 million to school divisions across the province to help with the rising cost of fuel and insurance for the 2022-23 school year.

In a press release, the province said the additional funding should prevent the cost of inflation from diverting resources away from the classroom.

"Now that school board budgets have been submitted, we have weighed the impact of fuel and insurance costs on their operations and are in a position to provide further assistance to divisions," Dustin Duncan, the minister of education, said in the release.

With this investment, in addition to the province's original education budget, school funding exceeds $2 billion for the first time in Saskatchewan's history.

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The province also previously announced a $7 million fund that will allow divisions to hire up to 200 new educational assistants for the 2022-23 year.

In a press release, Saskatchewan's NDP leader Carla Beck said the education minister needs to commit to guarantee stable, long-term funding for school divisions.

"School divisions are facing sky high inflationary pressures and the funding announced today is a drop in the bucket that only covers the shortfalls of six out of 27 school divisions," Beck said in the release.

The NDP is calling on the premier and the education minister to commit to funding a full $50 million to the school budget which it said would cover inflationary costs moving forward.

School boards are expressing their appreciation for what amounts to a one per cent funding increase overhaul.

“It’s encouraging that the government has responded to the concerns that we have been raising for quite some time now,” said Shawn Davidson, president of Saskatchewan School Boards Association.

The money will be split according to how much busing school boards do. Regina and Saskatoon public boards do the most and will each receive about $1.5 million. Some boards had been planning staffing cuts to meet the funding shortfall. Now they may be able to hold off.

“This funding has not addressed all of our cost drivers and inflationary pressures so there is still going to be some of those tough divisions are going to be sustained by divisions. I have no doubt in my mind about that but it will certainly allow divisions to take another look at some of the really tough choices that they had to make,” Davidson said.

Saskatchewan school boards are now facing a new pressure as crown corporations move to increase power and natural gas rates. The provincial government said it will look at that but isn’t committing any additional funds for now.