As a result of Sask. Party cuts, hundreds of teachers and support workers have already been told their jobs have been eliminated from Saskatchewan schools and, with only half of the province’s school boards reporting how the Sask. Party’s budget cuts will affect them, there are even more job cuts to come.
“The cuts the Sask. Party made in their budget are having very real and a very direct impacts on our kids,” said Education Critic Carla Beck. “These short-sighted cuts will absolutely hurt our teachers’ ability to teach and our kids’ ability to learn and grow in the classroom. The human and economic costs of refusing to properly foster growth in a student and help them reach their potential far exceed any short-term savings that these cuts will bring.”
The divisions that have provided information have already announced a total of 284 full-time equivalent positions that will be cut and more cuts are expected. So far, these cuts have particularly impacted special needs programs, Aboriginal retention workers, speech language pathologists, counsellors, and education assistants among many others.
“The students of Saskatchewan should not be the ones to pay for the Sask. Party’s mismanagement, scandal and waste,” Beck said. “The Sask. Party has said that the budget was about ‘Investing in Priority Areas.’ Well, they handed corporations and their wealthy and well-connected friends $100 million in tax breaks and their cuts to education are forcing hundreds of our teachers and the people who support our kids in their schools to be thrown out of work. What does that say about their priorities?”