STF rolls out ad campaign, slams gov’t over education funding

It’s back-to-school time, but the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) is saying that educators will be returning to many of the same problems they’ve been dealing with for a number of years.

During a virtual news conference Thursday, the teachers’ union showed two videos that are part of its annual ad campaign. The videos highlighted issues like overcrowded classrooms and budget cuts.

In a media release, the STF slammed the provincial government for ignoring its responsibility for public schools.

“We want to work together with the government,” STF president Samantha Becotte said the news conference.

“Teachers, parents, members of the public — we want to ensure the decisions that are being made are in the best interest of kids and so our hope is with this ad campaign. It shines a light on the realities that teachers and students are facing in today’s classrooms and then everyone can work together to make better changes for the future.”

Becotte said additional funding for the upcoming school year might help get students additional resources — though that wouldn’t necessarily be the best way to go about education funding. The STF suggested having another look at how the budget is developed.

“We know that those conversations are going to begin here in the fall and hopefully it puts some pressure on the government to re-evaluate where they’re putting their priorities,” Becotte said.

“We know budgets are political documents and where they’re putting their money is their priority and year after year education has seen less of an investment than really it should be getting.

“Our kids are our future. They don’t work in four-year cycles and education is a long-term investment and so we need to be looking at that long-term investment — not looking at it as a political choice.”

When asked by reporters about the first-quarter fiscal report released Thursday, Becotte said it remains to be seen how the halved surplus will affect contract negotiations between the province and the STF.

“Even half a billion dollars is a significant amount of money,” she said.

New minister Jeremy Cockrill

Becotte said the STF is open to working with new Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill and said she has reached out to him to meet in person.

She said she had met with the previous minister, Dustin Duncan, numerous times in person. Cockrill replaced Duncan during a cabinet shuffle that was announced Tuesday.

“From my experience last year, Minister Duncan and I had committed to open, transparent conversation. We committed at the beginning of the year in September to work together with no surprises and unfortunately that commitment wasn’t upheld on his end from what we’ve seen,” Becotte said.

“There (are) too many policies that have been announced (for which) there (has) been no consultation with teachers and too many decisions where teachers’ voices and students’ voices are not being included in those conversations.”

Pronoun policy

Becotte said there is still confusion over the new pronoun policy being implemented by the government, particularly in terms of how it will actually be enforced.

“We haven’t seen any exact changes to division policies that have been made,” Becotte said.

“A lot of this is up in the air. A lot of this could have been determined through thorough consultation (with the STF, school boards, division leadership and so on).

“No one was consulted in this policy and so there’s a lot of questions that everyone in the education sector (have) and we are waiting for those answers.”

A rally against the policies is scheduled for Saturday outside of the Legislative Building.