Thousands take to Sask. Legislature to protest education shortfalls

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In a sea of colourful posters and cheering protesters outside the legislative building in Regina, Bengough teacher Courtney Feiger holds a sign above the crowd that reads “This is my teacher voice.”

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Her poster was one of many in a crowd of thousands amassing at the Legislative Assembly in Regina on Saturday, specifically to raise their voices about the state of public education in Saskatchewan.

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Organized by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF), the rally for education was a public call for the Government of Saskatchewan to address chronic funding shortfalls wreaking havoc on the education sector.

“Parents, students, teachers all want what’s best for students, for kids, and this government needs to listen,” said STF president Samantha Becotte. “Teachers are angry, the public is angry, kids are angry.”

Like many, Feiger made the effort to travel for the rally out of passion, with the goal of impressing upon politicians the realities Saskatchewan teachers like her are facing as a direct result of underfunding.

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“We work in a rural, K-12 school where we have typically triple-grade classrooms,” said Feiger. “I teach grades 6, 7, 8 phys-ed, ELA and social studies, all in one classroom.”

It means juggling curriculums and struggling students, said Feiger, and her situation is not unique.

Educators across the province are burnt out and under-resourced, with classrooms bursting at the seams and funding continually short, according to the STF. Teachers are concerned about education standards; families are concerned about their children’s futures.

The message to government from the crowd was simple: classrooms need more funding.

“Our kids are the most important thing. That is why we do our jobs, and why we are here, to support them and the future they have,” Feiger said.

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Teachers, support staff, students, union reps, school boards and concerned citizens from all corners of the province gathered in the shadow of Saskatchewan’s political seat of power to demand improved investment.

Waving signs called for “No Moe cuts,” and for the province to “invest in our schools.” Protesters wore hats and neck bandanas sporting the words, “I love my publicly funded school.”

A bevy of speakers took to the podium, all demanding more attention to education, to cheers from the crowd.

Among them were Regina Public Schools board vice-chair Sarah Cummings-Truszkowski and Regina Catholic Schools chair Shauna Weninger, joined by several other trustees from both divisions.

Attendees also heard from Laura Walton, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario School Boards Council of Unions, Jenny Regal from the Canadian Teachers Federation and Lori Johb of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, as well as several local university and high school students.

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As they spoke, chants rose throughout the program, rhythmic phrases including “no more cuts,” “save our schools,” “enough is enough,” and “Scott Moe, go.”

“How can students be expected to take it (education) seriously, when the government doesn’t even take it seriously?” Balfour Collegiate Grade 11 student Anya Peppler asked the crowd.

Caused by a decade of cuts, said teachers union

The rally itself was a culmination of what Becotte described as a frustration that has been brewing for over a decade, due to continual cuts at the hands of provincial government.

She said the 2023-24 budget announced earlier this spring, paired with claims boasting another record investment in education, saw the sector reach a boiling point.

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“It’s taken decades to get to this point, but teachers do their best to make do with what we have,” she said.

“Publicly funded education is important, and they can’t continue to siphon money off and limit the resources and discredit what we’re doing.”

Analysis of the $49.9 million, or 2.5 per cent, increase to funding the Ministry of Education is to divvy out to the 27 school divisions this coming year says it is actually a 0.7 per cent increase, or less than $14 million, outside of required operational funding and inflation.

“The majority of that funding has already been provided as base funding,” said Cummings-Truszkowski. “It’s already been spent.”

“Year after year, we’ve only seen one increase in funding that has actually exceeded the rate of inflation in the last decade,” said Becotte.

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Enrolment growth this year was the largest the province has seen in two decades, but the STF says there are 300 fewer teachers than in 2021 and per-student funding has decreased significantly since 2013.

Becotte pointed to a still-pending urgent request from Regina and Saskatoon school divisions for an emergency funding adjustment, to help them support more than 2,000 unfunded students added after September this year, the equivalent of four elementary schools operating with no provincial funding.

Becotte said the volume and breadth of the crowd on Saturday should be a clear indicator that something needs to change.

Opposition leader Carla Beck, joined by six other party MLAs, told the crowd that its size was affirming that more than just the NDP cares about education, despite comments made by a Sask Party MLA earlier in the week.

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“If the government doesn’t know by now the impact that their cuts are having, they are being wilfully ignorant,” she said. “By the reaction here today, people aren’t going to stand for that much longer.”

Becotte said she’s not sure where the disconnect between the education minister’s messaging and actions is happening, but the hope is to see immediate action on funding failures.

She said the STF extended an invitation to Education Minister Dustin Duncan for the event as recently as Friday, but he declined to attend.

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