I don’t even know where to begin. I’m rarely at a loss for words, but researching and writing this rendered me speechless.
Kindergarten to Grade 12 schools in Saskatchewan are grossly underfunded by the Sask Party government. Premier Scott Moe and Education Minister Dustin Duncan have been lying and spinning and lying some more about “record funding”, but that’s all it is.
Those two are knowingly destroying Saskatchewan K-12 education. I’ll trust the evidence provided by school boards from across the province on abysmal K - 12 funding levels any day over a single word coming out of their mouths.
Total funding (which includes capital for new construction or renovations, funding for daycares and early learning etc) in Saskatchewan’s 2022-’23 budget for our province’s 625 public and Catholic K-12 schools, which educates 180,000 kids (pg 328), is $1.99-billion (pg 187). That works out to an average of $11,364 per student (pg 325).
$299-million of that $1.99-billion is earmarked for operating 625 schools in 2022-’23, representing a $6-million or 2% increase over the year before. Except $4.9-million of it is earmarked to hire EAs, so it’s really a $1.1-million, or a fraction of a percent operational increase for our kids education next year.
There is presently $1.3-billion in deferred maintenance costs (pg 191) outstanding on Saskatchewan schools. K-12 school buildings all over the place are crumbling.
In 2021-’22, 9274, or 5% of Saskatchewan’s publicly-funded student population have “intensive support needs” (pg 327). That’s one student with intensive needs in every classroom in the province, or up to two students not having their needs met in the classrooms that are grossly overenrolled.
In 2021-22 2806 children and youth (pg 323) attended Saskatchewan’s twenty-two independent and four historical high schools, more commonly known as private schools. Total taxpayer funding in 2022-’23 for those 26 private schools is $17.5-million (pg 188), a $2.3-million or 15% increase in private school funding over 2021-22.
That works out to an average of approximately $6300 in public money per private school student per year. Remember, that money is only for operations, so does not include the child care, capital and maintenance costs etc that are included in the public and Catholic school student average of $11,364.
Historical high schools are funded at 80% of Saskatchewan’s per-student average (pg 324). Those four are Athol Murray (Notre Dame), Rosthern Junior College, Luther High School in Regina and Lutheran Collegiate Bible Institute.
Rarely, if ever in Saskatchewan history have we funded capital (construction) costs at historical high schools. Til now. We’re giving Notre Dame $4-million to put towards their reno and new build. Given the volume of Sask Party donors on this page, I don’t wonder why.
Remember that private schools are allowed to charge tuition and fundraise, but public schools are not.
Qualified independent schools are funded at 50%. We’ll get to those in a minute.
A new category of certified independent schools will be funded at 75%. There is only one school currently in the certified category and that is Saskatoon Christian School (pg 324).
If a Saskatoon Christian School girl gets pregnant, she might even be allowed to continue her education there.
Private schools are not required to enrol students with any needs, nevermind those that are intensive (pg 324). They’re not required to accept any student. Saskatoon Christian School won’t take kids who can’t “function in English”. Most private schools specify on their websites that no application is guaranteed, the decision is subjective and each school has different criteria for it.
(By the way, Saskatchewan Eastview MLA, education and high school teacher Matt Love crushed Dustin Duncan in committee meetings on this topic. I strongly suggest reading both conversations, April 4, 2022 and April 13, 2022.)
Let’s talk about those 22 independent schools.
I’m going to lay out facts about a few and let you decide if you’re okay with your tax dollars going towards them. You can also decide if you trust the judgment of the Minister of Education and the people who work in his Ministry, especially those responsible for greenlighting the flow of public dollars into these organizations.
Westgate Heights Academy
Saskatoon’s Westgate Heights Academy is operated by Westgate Alliance Church. That church (not the school, the church) began receiving $100,000 in provincial education funding in 2019-20, in 2020-21 and presumably will in 2022-23 also.
Note - I’m going to link to each relevant year’s copy of Public Accounts Vol 2, which is where you can find all these numbers. You can download and/or use the links to check my work throughout.
Westgate Alliance Church is a member of the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA).
Westgate Alliance Church Board of Elders are advised in their manual that the “discipline of a member shall be the responsibility of the Board or its designates and shall be in accordance with the Discipline and Restoration Policy for Members of Local Churches adopted by The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada.” (pg 16)
$300,000 of your money going to a church that disciplines and rejects members of our province’s dear 2SLGBTQ+ community, instead of to public schools.
Prairie Christian Academy
Located just outside Saskatoon, the Prairie Christian Academy is an extension of Faith Alive Family Church and Faith Alive Ministries. In the five fiscal years since 2016-17, the Academy has received $1.5-million in tax dollars for the very important work it does for the Sask Party in its K-12 operation:
I’m thinking Prairie Christian Academy wasn’t excited about COVID-19 restrictions either.
Valley Christian Academy
According to its website, which is hosted by the Prairie Spirit School Division, Valley Christian Academy in Osler, Saskatchewan strives “to teach and train students to become disciples of Jesus Christ so “..that in all things He (Christ) might have pre-eminence”.”
I could not find payment to Valley Christian Academy in Public Accounts, but it is listed as one of the Sask Party government’s 2021-22 registered qualified independent schools. The funding may have been received under a different name.
Beyond the Jesus quote above, there’s not much online about the school at all, until you download the 2021-22 Student Handbook.
Pages 2 and 3:
Absolutely certain I was about to get stupider for it, I reluctantly clicked on the cbmw.org link in the document I’d just downloaded from a Saskatchewan school board’s website.
I will not republish or reprint the Nashville Statement because it’s horrifying. Click if you see fit, but I’m warning you, particularly if you are a member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, that this publicly-funded Saskatchewan school’s policy is shocking, deeply offensive and will hurt you.
Elevation Academy
Seen in the video included with this post Pastor Kevin Tabuchi along with his wife and daughter own and operate Elevation Academy, which is a Grade 1-12 school located at and operated by Prince Albert’s Canadian Revival Centre (CRC). It appears to employ one provincially certified teacher, who is also the principal.
Canadian Revival Centre has received just shy of $2-million dollars from Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Education for the five fiscal years between 2016-17 and 2020-21.
There’s not a lot of information available on Elevation Academy on CRC’s website, but there is some on the Canadian Revival Training Centre. Both are operated by Tabuchi out of the Canadian Revival Centre. The Training Centre has a student handbook, inclusive this edict:
In several videos on the Canadian Revival Centre’s website, Pastor Kevin Tabuchi speaks of his visions being fulfilled of people with specific ailments coming to his church for him to heal, which he says he does.
This is a smattering of research. I was not able to get through all the schools, but this woman has interesting things to say about what’s going on in other so-called Christian schools in Saskatchewan.
We are missing so much information right now about our government and how it’s running publicly-funded programs through each Ministry. Please understand how currently underserved you are by both media (perhaps not their fault as some of it is a resource issue) and the Official Opposition (ditto). This would never, ever have gone unreported or unchallenged a decade ago. In fact I don’t think it would have happened at all.
This iteration of the Sask Party government is f**ked. That’s all I’ve got to explain this nightmare province anymore.
The Sask Party government is funding schools with your money which are, at the very least, openly violating our province’s Human Rights Code*. This is not okay. This has to stop. Please call your MLA.
*Note: my bad, they’re not violating it, believe it or not. Everytime I think something can’t get worse, it does. This clause must be removed from the Code.
Enjoy your week,
