REGINA - The opposition New Democrats are raising concerns at the Legislature about the loss of 80 educational assistant jobs at Saskatoon Public Schools.
That school division has said this week that it must make the cuts due to a significant shortfall of Jordan’s Principle funding from the federal government for those positions. That news got the attention of NDP education critic Matt Love, who represents Saskatoon Eastview in the legislature.
Love told reporters at the Legislature Wednesday that he received a number of calls last night to his cell phone as the news broke. As a parent within that public school division, he also received the letter from the division that was sent to families. He calls it “an evolving situation.”
Love said this will have “a big impact on not just 80 students, but students across Saskatoon.”
“And this is federal funding. That's raising a lot of concerns in Saskatoon and other divisions that this funding may not be able to be accessed by other divisions. That's a concern.”
Love said he was not able to comment on what the delay is with this funding coming from the federal program. But he did note that it points to classrooms being in a “critical situation.”
“We've gone from first to worst in terms of per-student funding in the country. And we have classrooms that school divisions describe as cut to the bone. So when they lose another source of funding, that's going to have critical impacts on our students.”
When asked if this scenario in Saskatoon could repeat itself elsewhere in the province, Love replied that he had been hearing concerns about this for a number of weeks.
“I've been on the phone with leaders across Saskatchewan and in other provinces. And so we know that this situation has also happened in school divisions in Alberta and Manitoba.
And so there is concern out there. And I think the folks right now are just trying to get answers, trying to find out what the future is for this funding. Because we know that every dollar of funding in our schools is very important.”
When asked if this was a situation where the province might need to step up with funding of its own, Love had this to say:
“You know, education is a provincial jurisdiction. And I'd like to see the province take some leadership on working with divisions that are impacted, and also working with partners at the federal level to ensure that those funds that are designated are getting to the right place. And I think that there is a role for the province to have in this, in again, working to get the funds there.”
But Love also said there was a role for the province to “get our classrooms out of last place in the country, which is where we are funding on a per-student basis. We're in last place, I think the province absolutely has a major role to play in that.”
He called it a critical situation, being “made worse by the loss of these federal dollars. And yet it is, as I mentioned, an evolving situation that we're going to have to wait and see and get some answers.
“And I know my phone will continue to ring, and I'm here to act in my capacity as shadow minister to hopefully get a better outcome for our students. So that could be reversible if it is an evolving situation. It could be potentially reversible.”
