The Saskatchewan Government is providing school divisions one-time funding of $20-million for the upcoming school year.
The province says this will aid school divisions in dealing with rising fuel and insurance costs.
Good Spirit School Division is receiving just over $1-million dollars, while the Christ the Teacher Catholic School Division is getting $88-thousand 900.
The Prairie Valley School Division is getting over $1.2-million in funding, and the Horizon School Division over $1.1-million.
“Our government recognizes the impacts rising costs across the country have on our schools and we are committed to ensuring every Saskatchewan student and teacher has the supports needed to achieve success in the classroom,” Education Minister Dustin Duncan said. “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.”
The province also announced a new $7 million fund to allow school divisions to hire up to 200 new educational assistants for the 2022-23 school year.
NDP reaction
Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck called today’s (Thurs) one-time funding announcement for school divisions “a drop in the bucket.”
Beck says in a statement that the money “only covers the shortfalls of 6 out of 27 school divisions.”
She also questioned why Premier Scott Moe waited until school division budgets were finalized to help.
“The Sask. Party’s reactive band-aid approach to budgeting is absolutely alarming and the reason our schools are being forced to pinch pennies year after year,” said Beck. “If the Sask. Party government is willing to unapologetically fork out eight thousand dollars for a minister’s chicken dinner in North Battleford, they should also commit to predictable, stable funding for divisions moving forward.”
The Opposition are calling on the Sask. Party government to commit to funding package of a full $50-million and to commit to adequate, predictable funding that covers inflationary costs moving forward.