SASKATOON – A parent who complained about Saskatchewan education to the United Nations hopes the province’s latest plans improve the system.
Two years ago the public school in Wood Mountain, Sask., was closed sending 50 children, including Michael Klein’s, to neighboring towns by bus. Klein and the organization he works with, the Saskatchewan Association of Communities and Schools, appealed to education minister Pat Atkinson who said she could not overrule a decision made by the division school board. Klein then asked the UN to look into the closure, citing it as a contravention of the global charter affirming the rights of children.
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Klein recently received a reply from the United Nations asking him for more information.
Long bus rides, higher taxes
He said since his local school was closed in the south-central Saskatchewan community, under the guise of saving money, there have been two school tax increases and a third is now proposed. Meanwhile, his children and others are riding buses an average of 100 kilometres a day.
Saving money is also the reason behind Atkinson’s remarks last week proposing the creation of regional education authorities that could condense the layers of decision making.
“If the government is talking of larger school divisions but allowing education decisions to be more locally based, we could see an improvement in the system,” Klein said.
Regional mergers are not necessarily bad, he said.
The association showed the minister how $58 million a year could be saved by eliminating some of the 119 large division boards and the staff that go with them and allowing local boards to make the spending and other decisions.
While Klein is hopeful the province will support the smaller structure “my sense is they’re going the opposite way.”
For rural parents who don’t want to send their children on long bus rides, one answer could be home schooling, but Klein said it is a big commitment. He and his wife considered it but for now are sending their children to school in Limerick, 43 kilometres away.
