Sask. Minister of Education responds to criticism over remote learning financials
One day following criticisms of the financials, the need, and the validity of the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre (Sask. DLC), Minister of Education Dustin Duncan responded.
Duncan did not answer CTV News’ questions Wednesday but spoke following session Thursday.
Tuesday, Duncan claimed the government could save public school divisions in the province $13 million with the new Crown corporation.
Wednesday, both the STF and the Prairie Valley School Division (PVSD) didn’t see how it was possible, with PVSD claiming it actually had a $600,000 clawback on its budget from this school year due to the Sask. DLC.
The $13 million figure, Duncan said, would be saved “in the way that we’re funding it.”
“We're funding the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation through two methods. One is a direct grant from the government of Saskatchewan, about $23 million. The other is a per class per student fee of $500 that the home school division will pay to the (Sask. DLC) for every student that takes one course,” Duncan explained.
The Minister of Education added that during discussions with school divisions with their own online learning policies, the government asked for the divisions to provide its own costs to operate online learning.
“What's your cost structure? How many teachers do you employ? And we received that information from most school divisions,” he said, pointing to Regina Public School Division as the lone division not to provide the figures.
“What we can say from that information is that, ‘Ok, as a school division, you have said it's going to cost you X, it has cost you X, in the past, to provide online learning.’”
Duncan said based on the understanding that student fees are $500, per student per class they take, the $13 million figure was created.
“For the public school divisions, it's about 250 full-time teachers that formally taught online learning that now will either be employed by the Saskatchewan Distance Learning corporation, or they will be still an employee of their local school division, and then we'll be able to be redeployed back into a classroom,” explained Duncan.
The $600,000 figure PVSD was referring to, Duncan said, was based on “historical” and “traditional” online learning the division had in the past.
That figure could climb in the future, Duncan did not indicate that it may drop, but added that funds are expected to be returned to school divisions from this past year based on actuals rather than estimates.
“So I think over the course of a couple of years, we likely will see an increase is particularly from students and school divisions that in the past didn't have access to a lot of courses when it came to online learning,” he said.
“We will reconcile based on actuals. So we're making an estimate right now, based on the actual enrollment in September, we will reconcile whether we were lower (or) we were high, and it basically will be $500 per class per student that takes an online class to the (Sask. DLC).”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard found not guilty of sexual assault
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in northeastern Ontario eight years ago. The former Hedley frontman had pleaded not guilty to sexual assault.
Police arrest Toronto woman in connection with three recent homicides
Police have arrested a Toronto woman in connection with three recent homicides and investigators say that they believe two of the victims may have been 'randomly targeted.'
Missing B.C. climber died from fall on Mount Baker, medical examiner says
The body of a British Columbia mountain climber has been located and recovered after the 39-year-old man was reported missing during a solo climb on Washington state's Mount Baker earlier this week.
Following child's death in Ontario, here's what you need to know about rabies and bats
An Ontario child died last month after coming into contact with a rabid bat in their bedroom, which was the first known human rabies case in Canada since 2019.
A French judge in a shocking rape case allows the public to see some of the video evidence
A French judge in the trial of dozens of men accused of raping an unconscious woman whose now former husband had repeatedly drugged her so that he and others could assault her decided on Friday to allow the public to see some of the video recordings of the alleged rapes.
Former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters sentenced to 9 years for voting data scheme
A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
Anne Hathaway confirms 'Princess Diaries 3': 'Miracles happen'
You might be thinking, 'Shut up!' but it’s officially true: the 'Princess Diaries' franchise is finally growing.
Youth pleads guilty to manslaughter in death of P.E.I. teen Tyson MacDonald
A teen charged with the murder of another teen on Prince Edward Island last year has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Sask. man pleads guilty in U.S. after unknowingly providing videos of men raping toddlers to FBI agent
A Saskatchewan man living in the United States has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography after he unknowingly provided disturbing videos to an FBI agent he thought was a pedophile.