PRINCE ALBERT — The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation hosted the first forum of the 2024 provincial election virtually on Thursday evening.

Representatives from all six parties were present for the Vote for Public Education Election Forum. Representatives responded to moderated questions before an invited audience of teachers, retired teachers and post-secondary education students.

Forum participants included Rose Buscholl of the Progressive Conservatives, Jeremy Cockrill of the Saskatchewan Party, Valerie Brooks of the Green Party, Matt Love of the Saskatchewan NDP, Jahangir Valiani of the Saskatchewan Progress Party and the Buffalo Party’s Philip Zajac. The Saskatchewan United Party did not provide a representative.  

Moderator Jennifer Quesnel noted before the final question of the evening that the forum had received several questions on funding for qualified independent schools. Quesnel noted that the money going to private schools had increased by 79 per cent while funding to public schools increased 13 per cent. She asked how much tax dollars should be going to private or home schools.

Candidates were on a rotation so each would have a chance to respond first. For this question, the NDP led off.

NDP candidate Love said that a new category was created for all independent schools, some of which have former staff facing criminal charges.

“We have other categories of schools that have really been created to get massive amounts of dollars and it has been the position of the Sask Party government to see that that category of schools expands and grows and flourishs,” Love said. “It’s been their stated goal and they use very American-style Republican-style talking points, both parental choice and educational. Most parents in this province don’t have choices (with) one school in their community.”

He said that the priority of the NDP was to increase funding for Public, Catholic and French Schools.

“Our position has always been that any school that gets even a single dollar of public funds needs to ensure that they’re abiding by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code and that they’re not mistreating their students in ways that we’ve seen from several of these schools where allegations have come forward,” Love said.

Love said that the NDP would review funding, but did not provide details.

“Our priority and our commitments are to publicly funded, publicly delivered schools and to not do what the Minister and his party have done here, which is divert funds into these independent schools,” Love said.

Buffalo Party leader Zajac said that the party does not believe that the government should dictate where parents want their children to go to school.

“The Buffalo Party is a true believer in not being a father figure to families in this province,” Zajac said. “I think that funding should be fair across the board and equitable.”

He said that incidents like those alleged at the religious private schools can happen at any school.

“Education is important. If a parent chooses to send their kid to a private school or a Christian School, that’s their choice, and if we help fund their education, I don’t think anybody should have a problem with that,” he said.

Zajac added that the Buffalo Party would listen to everyone and come up with a solution.

“If Buffalo had a choice, you would be able to pick,” he said.

Cockrill said the government’s position was that every child should have access to education whether it was through Catholic, Public, French or independent schools.

“Our party would continue to fund independent schools at the current rate,” he said. “The reality is that we believe that parents, at the end of the day, should have the choice of where their children go to school and we allow that between Public and Catholic schools.  

“Certainly, we would continue providing funding to independent schools because they do provide choice and options to parents,” he added.

Cockrill said the largest driver of the funding increase was increased enrollment at these private schools. He also noted that these schools are not funded to the level of Public or Catholic schools.

“We’re comfortable with the Independent School funding as is and as I said, we want to continue to support to parents and families in whatever decisions they make for their children,” Cockrill said.

Cockrill noted that Harvest Christin Academy is an associate school in the Regina Public Schools.  He said there was an opportunity to increase accountability.

“(We’ve) added oversight to independent schools over the last several years as we have developed these tiers to make sure that there is a higher level of accountability if you’re in the certified category,” Cockrill explained. “There’s a process for schools to enter the certified Independent School category, and certainly we’ll always be looking for ways to … strengthen that accountability.”

When asked if he would have changed anything in hindsight Cockrill again focused on school choice for parents and increasing accountability.

Valiani from the Saskatchewan Progress Party said that one of the most important jobs of the provincial government was to fully fund public education in the province including Public, Catholic and Francophone education.

“I think it’s entirely fair that the other candidates said that parent choice is valuable and that parents want to take that route that is a decision they can make, but I don’t believe that public tax dollars should be moved to that direction,” Valiani said.

Valerie Brooks of the Green Party said that her party would phase out all funding for private schools over the next five years.

“A strong community comes from a diverse and inclusive welcoming environment,” she said. “I’m okay with parents having choices. I fully agree that a parent should have a choice of where their kid goes to school, what their kid learns. I understand that, but public dollars tax dollars in a public system needs to be allocated completely to fully public, accountable, transparent schools that are accessible to everyone.”

Rose Bushell leader of the PC Party of Saskatchewan said that public funding should go to public schools and then discussed how Catholic Schools are written into the constitution. “Parents need to have the right to send their children to wherever they want. They have that right of choice. However, we’re talking public tax dollars. Public tax dollars should not be going to pay for an Independent School that will focus on areas that don’t belong in public schools,” she said.

“We keep church and state separate for a reason. It should be out of the schools and if they want to teach that, then maybe they should get funded by these churches which they represent,” Bushell added.

Each participant was asked to respond to questions addressing the issues most important to teachers and audience members.

A recording of the forum has been made available on the STF YouTube channel.

Each representative had an opening and closing statement and was given two minutes to respond.  

To conclude the 90-minute forum, candidates were asked to pledge public education. The pledge reads: Do you promise to advocate for public education in Saskatchewan and ensure our students and teachers get the support they need to succeed in the classroom? Of the six candidates in attendance, all took the pledge for publicly funded education.

STF President Samantha Becotte was glad to see so many parties represented at the forum.

“This forum is an important part of our Vote for Public Education campaign, making sure that public education remains a key issue at the ballot box this fall,” Becotte said in a press release. “The Federation is non-partisan and does not endorse any particular party or candidate. We encourage teachers and all Saskatchewan voters to listen to the policies and platforms of each party and make an informed decision about who they feel will best support the current and future state of our publicly funded education system.”