Moe says interim funding is on the way for Saskatchewan school divisions

Overcrowded and underfunded are how some would describe Saskatchewan’s education system.

But help is expected to be on the way soon for the province’s education system.

Premier Scott Moe told Gormley on Monday that Education Minister Dustin Duncan is having discussions with school divisions this week to give them interim funding.

“We’re making every effort that we can to bring that forward as quickly as we can, given the unprecedented population growth which is really driving some of the pressures in our schools,” he said.

Moe added the province is building new schools and is adding more teachers to its education system, but the premier said he needs to make sure that funding is in place when the students are in those schools.

“This is a little growth curve, if you pardon the pun, but a learning curve for all of us,” the premier said. “We’re going to do everything we can to pull that interim funding allocation forward to provide some certainty to the school divisions as they go through their budget deliberations.”

According to Moe, estimated growth of the student population is factored into the education funding formula, but estimates are quickly becoming outdated.

“Those population estimates are not only being met within the first opening day of the school year, but by the time we find our way through the school year, those population estimates are actually doubling and growing much quicker than … we’ve seen in a century,” he said.

As for what the dollar figures are going to look like, the premier said those are yet to be determined, since the discussions between Duncan and the school divisions haven’t yet finished.

“The school divisions ultimately pay their employees,” Moe said. “Those numbers … have been fixed throughout the collective bargaining period of time. The inflationary pressures that the school divisions do feel are about 30 per cent of their expenses (and) about 70 per cent are wages, which are generally set through the collective bargaining tables that we have.”

Moe added there’s more money that needs to be brought into the province’s operational education funding, including investments outside of school division funding.