Private school funding draws attention during STF education forum [Video]

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation hosted a virtual election forum on education Thursday evening, giving candidates in the provincial election a chance to share their thoughts and answer questions on issues teachers find most important.

Representatives from six of the seven registered parties were included in the roughly 90-minute forum. The Saskatchewan United Party was the lone party not to participate. Topics included per-student education funding, violence in the classroom, and class size.

However, one topic that generated plenty of discussion and was asked for by many teachers was public funding for private education.

“Our position has always been that any school receiving public dollars needs to uphold public values. And most importantly, the Saskatchewan human rights code,” former education critic and NDP candidate Matt Love said.

“We have a government — it’s been very clear, they’ve increased investment in private education several times more than they have in our public …