Dear Editor
In a recent News Optimist Letter to the Editor, Sask Party MLA, Herb Cox, claims that cuts to our classroom haven鈥檛 happened.聽He says the NDP are being dishonest and misleading the public when using the word 鈥渃uts鈥� to describe expenditures of the provincial government, particularly when it comes to education funding.
Thankfully the News Optimist has been regularly reporting on Living Sky School Division Board meetings and providing information to the public. Herb Cox attended one such meeting in January 2020 where the Education Director, Brenda Vickers, showed the MLAs a graph indicating 鈥渆ducation funding in 2019-20 was聽down almost 12.5 per cent聽in real dollars from 2012-13, when adjusted for inflation.鈥澛� Board chair Ronna Pethick聽 said,聽鈥淲e鈥檝e cut and cut and cut to the point where we can鈥檛 cut anymore.鈥澛燗聽key message from the school division to the MLAs was that there was no more room for further efficiencies.
The following are statements made by board members at previous LSSD聽 meetings: April 2013 - the 鈥�2013-2014 funding聽drop of 3.5% from the year before means dipping into reserves鈥� and 鈥淯ntil the reserves are gone they (the Sask Party government) are going to keep cutting us.鈥澛燗pril 2014 - 鈥渁 decrease in operating funding of $105,000 from last year鈥�.聽April 2015 - 鈥渨e are getting farther behind and not catching up,鈥澛燗pril 2016 鈥� 鈥渙ur school division received less money from the province in this spring鈥檚 budget鈥�.聽In聽April 2017 a News Optimist headline read,聽鈥淏ig $6 million budget hole for Living Sky to address鈥� and in April 2018 the headline was 鈥淟iving Sky: $653,000 less funding than last year.鈥� Would Herb Cox say all these people are just being dishonest and misleading the public?
Also reported over the years, the LSSD has gone to great lengths to find efficiencies, postponing needed repairs and not replacing buses,聽increasing the student-to-teacher ratio, reducing the number of teachers and education assistants,聽reducing professional development, fewer class trips and making kids walk farther to school.聽聽
Herb Cox鈥檚 statement that 鈥溾�檆uts鈥� to our classrooms haven鈥檛 happened.鈥澛� contradicts not only the LSSD鈥檚 experience but the 2018-19 Public Accounts Volume 1 which states, 鈥淓ducation expenses was $3.38 billion in the current year, representing $88 million, or 2.5 percent decrease from the prior year鈥︹�澛燝raphs in the 2019-20 Public Accounts indicate education spending as a percentage of total spending has decreased year over year since 2016.
You can say it louder and more often if you like, Mr. Cox, but it doesn鈥檛 change anything.聽Whether the NDP or the Living Sky School Division label it a cut, a decrease or a drop in funding聽-- the end result of underfunding education has a negative impact our children and their future.聽
Evelyn Johnson
Spiritwood
