Sask. Minister of Education responds to criticism over remote learning financials
CTV
One day following criticisms of the financials, the need, and the validity of the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre (Sask. DLC), Minister of Education Dustin Duncan responded.
One day following criticisms of the financials, the need, and the validity of the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Centre (Sask. DLC), Minister of Education Dustin Duncan responded.
Duncan did not answer CTV News’ questions Wednesday but spoke following session Thursday.
Tuesday, Duncan claimed the government could save public school divisions in the province $13 million with the new Crown corporation.
Wednesday, both the STF and the Prairie Valley School Division (PVSD) didn’t see how it was possible, with PVSD claiming it actually had a $600,000 clawback on its budget from this school year due to the Sask. DLC.
The $13 million figure, Duncan said, would be saved “in the way that we’re funding it.”
“We're funding the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation through two methods. One is a direct grant from the government of Saskatchewan, about $23 million. The other is a per class per student fee of $500 that the home school division will pay to the (Sask. DLC) for every student that takes one course,” Duncan explained.
The Minister of Education added that during discussions with school divisions with their own online learning policies, the government asked for the divisions to provide its own costs to operate online learning.