Leader Post Story on the Rally

Save Our Schools movement rallies outside legislature

Karen Brownlee
Leader-Post


Tuesday, March 27, 2007



CREDIT: Bryan Schlosser, Leader-Post
About 200 parents and children, mostly from rural Saskatchewan, gathered at the Saskatchewan Legislature for a "Save Our Schools" rally on Tuesday.

Not one school can be allowed to close until the provincial government changes how education is funded in Saskatchewan or else the entire province is at risk, said the spokesperson of Save our Schools, a grassroots group that organized a rally outside the Legislature on Tuesday.

“We need a fair, equitable and sustainable plan (for K to 12 education),” said David Gleim to the hundreds gathered at the steps of the Legislature calling for a new moratorium on school closures.

“It may be difficult, but not impossible. After all, we’re from Saskatchewan, where nothing is impossible.

“If we fail to do this, we fail rural Saskatchewan but most importantly Saskatchewan fails. The province will suffer from these school closures.” Up to 52 schools are being reviewed by school boards across the province following a 2 1/2 year voluntary moratorium brought in by the provincial government while school divisions where amalgamated. The education system can not continue to evolve if it is stalled by another moratorium, said Learning Minister Deb Higgins.

“We need to move ahead and make sure that the school boards have the opportunity to make the decisions that they feel are the best for their division,” said Higgins who believes the larger than average number of schools under review has lead to the rural tension.

“I would question whether holding it off -- some suggestions have been as long as five years -- are you just compiling the problem?” The foundation operating grant (F.O.G.) the province uses to disperse money to school divisions is the problem because it is biased towards cities, said Gleim.

While enrollment has declined across the province, funding to urban divisions has increased but Gleim said rural divisions have not been as fortunate.

“We’re here today (from) all over Saskatchewan to say to the government you need to resolve the imbalance,” said Gleim.

“The survival of many communities lies in the balance due to the powerful control of how the F.O.G. system is handled out of Saskatchewan Learning ...

Communities are going to lose their schools in the F.O.G.” Higgins said her government has not chosen winners and losers with its funding. While enrollment has declined across the province over the last 10 years, the provincial government has increased its funding by $200 million.

She said rural divisions are seeing less money because of population changes.

“Our population has moved and our demographics have changed and that’s what we need to address to make sure that the services are there for students,” said Higgins.

Times have changed. With oil and gas as well as the biofuel industries growing in rural areas and fueling our economy, those at the rally said rural Saskatchewan can not afford to lose schools that can attract residents to further grow the province.

Rural areas need time to revitalize, said Renaud Bissonnette, vice-president of towns for SUMA, whose school in Willow Bunch is under review.

“A friend of mine from Alberta once told me, ŒThe cities are the engines and (the rural areas) are the fuel,’ said “Now it is time for the government to start thinking this way. If you don’t have any fuel, you won’t have any cities.” While Saskatchewan Party education critic Rod Gantefour supports changing how education is funded in Saskatchewan, he isn’t certain how his party would pay for 60 per cent of education and taxpayers 40 per cent should it form government.

“It will have to a priority for us to work in that direction,” said Gantefour.

“We know and people know we can’t do it over night because it’s taken this government 15 years to work in the other direction.” Some of those attending felt defeated at the end of day after getting insufficient answers from the provincial government.

“We were hoping to hear that they'll give more time. We wanted to hear that rural Saskatchewan matters,” said Jed Williams, a resident of Imperial who immigrated from Australia because of the opportunity he saw in rural Saskatchewan.

“We’re a minority. What do we do?” said Jodie Griffin of Crane Valley.

“I’ll guarantee you that they’ll go forward with what they’re doing and the schools will be closed and the province once again will be dead in the water.