Moose Jaw hosts first of many education rallies, teachers federation demands $400m

The Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation (STF) has organized a series of rallies across the province. The first was on Saturday in Moose Jaw.

Over a hundred gathered in front of MLA Tim McLeod’s office, with complaints about funding.

According to the STF, $400 million is required to restore funding to 2012 levels. The federation says school divisions saw nearly 4,000 more students enrolled last year while having to cut over 300 education positions due to budget cuts.

“This government has chosen to not fund public education in an equitable and a sustainable way and so we want to draw attention to that. We want to make sure that members of the public understand what’s going on in our schools,” said STF vice president, Nathan Bromm.

“School divisions and school boards are unable to fund classrooms effectively and we’re seeing resources cut from our students and intensive-needs kids are not getting the supports (they need),” said Bromm.

Kisanne Geis, the parent of a student, added that funding is just as important for kids as it if for the teachers.

“When there’s understaffed, the kids are then getting scrambled with not being able to focus properly, there’s (educational assistants) getting thrown all over the place,” Geis said.

Moose Jaw North MLA Tim McLeod in a statement said the government supports everyone’s right to peaceful protest.

“The Government of Saskatchewan is providing school divisions with $2.08 billion in school operating funding for 2023-24 school year, an increase of $89.4 million or 4.5 per cent, over the 2022-23 school year,” the statement read. “This includes an additional $40 million that was announced in June specifically to help support school divisions with enrolment growth and complexity of today’s classrooms.”

“Furthermore, the Government Trustee Bargaining Committee remains committed to reaching an agreement that will best serve students, teachers and families, and looks forward to working with the STF to reach a fair deal for teachers.”

Over the next few weeks, rallies will be held in Humboldt, Saskatoon and North Battleford.