Another academic at the University of Saskatchewan has suggested collapsing the large number of local governments in the province, this time school divisions.
Last month, agricultural economists Jack Stabler and Rose Olfert released a report recommending a reduction in the province’s several hundred municipalities.
Now, education college professor Allan Guy has waded into the fray. He told a session at the fifth national congress on rural education in Saskatoon April 6 that the province has the largest number of school districts in Canada. Saskatchewan has 88 districts for its one million population, whereas Ontario, with 12 times as many people, has 72.
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Guy said Saskatchewan has had only one wave of school consolidation, which started in 1944.
“The one we’re going through now isn’t making much progress,” said Guy of the call three years ago by former education minister Pat Atkinson for more school boards to merge voluntarily.
Guy said one factor that may force amalgamation upon school boards is financial strain.
Property tax revolts combined with the continuing lower commitment by the province are forcing constraints on school boards, said Guy. The province used to pick up 60 percent of school costs, but now only funds 40 percent. Local taxpayers fill in the gap.
Gary Shaddock, president of the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association, said in a news release after last month’s provincial government budget that the slight increase in funding for schools still leaves boards with tough decisions. The province says it gave school boards a 4.7 percent increase. SSTA said it actually works out to less than two percent.
“Cutting programs, closing schools or cutting staff is what faces many boards in the future. Once again it’s the children who suffer,” said Shaddock.
The trustees president said it
doesn’t matter how schools gain more provincial tax money since “it all comes from the same pocket.” But he wants the province to return to funding 60 percent of the K-12 education system.
Guy agreed boards are facing a worsening financial situation. They have gone as far as they can with property taxes and the provincial grants system ties them to year-by-year political fortunes. He suggested trustees ask the politicians for more tax revenue, in much the same way as the provinces have gained the right from the federal government to tax in new areas. Guy said school boards should be able to claim a portion of the tax on alcohol, tobacco and fuel sold in their areas.
The professor also has a model of how school boards could look in the future. He sees 25 to 30 boards in the province based in the largest towns and cities.
Each district’s boundaries would be no more than an hour’s drive from the administrative centre so staff and students would not spend too much time on the road instead of in school.
