SASKATOON – Cuts to operating grants in Saskatchewan schools are jeopardizing the ability of school boards to provide quality education, said Dorothy Fortier, president of the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association.
Combined with high operating costs, “boards are being pushed to the wall,” she said.
Most school boards will lose four percent of their grants this year, totalling $14.3 million across the province. This follows cuts of two percent in both 1992 and 1993.
But according to Fortier, some school boards could see reductions of five to 20 percent when declining enrolments and higher costs are taken into account.
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The cuts are already being felt in the form of higher student to teacher ratios, no improvements to facilities, and elimination of certain programs and school services. Last year 250 teacher positions in Saskatchewan were lost from the system, Fortier said. “Our boards have already cut administration costs and amalgamated services as much as possible.”
School closures and the busing of students to other schools in rural areas are trends Fortier finds disturbing because they can mean loss of community spirit.
Raising the mill rate to generate income isn’t an option, she added. Most people can’t afford more taxes and some school boards are already having trouble collecting taxes at their current rate.
It’s a double whammy of smaller grants and higher costs.
“Boards face additional costs of $3 million in salary increases, new benefits for teachers estimated at $250,000, salary increases for non-teaching staff estimated at $2.5 million, natural gas increases of $390,000, UIC and CPP increases in excess of $1.5 million, workers compensation premium increases of $125,000 – and the list goes on,” she said.
Fortier is worried about more cuts in 1995 and 1996, especially if there’s more federal government off-loading and cost increases.
