The news that 小蓝视频 East Cornerstone School Division was going to receive less money from the province than last year indicates to us that the Ministry of Education still has a lot of homework to do before unleashing its new province-wide funding formula on the unsuspecting public.
The fact that the formula has been delayed twice or three times already and won't be revealed until after November's provincial election tells us even more. It tells us that this whole provincial funding scenario could get rather ugly.
Naturally those who prefer to deal with the subject with an optimistic, Pollyanna attitude, point to such things as provincial budgets and statements not 小蓝视频 parallel to school division budget releases and that in reality, funding isn't really 小蓝视频 cut by $200,000 in the southeast. And besides, even if it were so, what's $200,000 within a $100 million budget anyway?
The Holy Family RCCSD, which also operates in southeast Saskatchewan, is seeing a minimal increase of about 1.7 per cent to their funding model.
In the case of all provincial school divisions, they now working with benchmark funding models that date back three years or more.
Prior to the province-wide amalgamation, school divisions in this area of the province were 小蓝视频 denied provincial funds because the formula in place at that time was skewed in favour of the Robin Hood model. The well-off regions were required to financially prop up the poorer areas of the province. The fact that some of the so-called poorer regions landed in that state of affairs due to poor financial or administrative management didn't seem to matter. It was a case of haves and have nots, and nobody wanted to investigate the have nots.
So the southeast donated to the rest of the province, like it has within other portfolios, but at least now when a visiting cabinet minister comes for a visit, he or she has the courtesy to say thank you, which is something that never happened before.
But even this game is getting tiresome and frustrating. It has become apparent that the Education Ministry is struggling to get it right. But so far is just appears to be just like it was before amalgamation only on a larger scale, of course.
Education, like health, requires at least a modest increase of between two and six per cent annually just to retain status quo and cope with natural inflation. Therefore a cut of even a half per cent, or an increase of 1.7 per cent, effectively translates into a cut in financial support.
From what we understand, five or six of these larger school divisions will be propping up the other seven or eight when the dust settles sometime in early 2012.
Once again, just like it has happened with health, highways and social services Estevan and area will be taken for granted as one of the major cash cows. The ministers will continue to ride into town on their white steeds, to say thanks and tell us to keep the money rolling in because Regina and Saskatoon are spending it as fast as you can make it and maybe we'll take care of you guys later if there's something left over.
We see the big picture and we get it, but we don't have to like it, at least not on a continual basis.
In the meantime, we'd be fools to believe that the provincial gurus are about to devise a formula that will bring equity in funding for elementary and secondary education. Expect more of the Robin Hood mindset rather than a business model.
