Today we learned that a single mother in Saskatchewan has been forced into sex work, so she can have the ability to support her high-needs son due to Scott Moe’s education cuts and educational assistant layoffs. Click here for the news article. 

Read it again. And again. And again. It should make you angry. I am furious.

I want to be clear: when single moms have to resort to sex work because schools don’t have enough educational assistants, it means our schools are broken – and Scott Moe broke them.

Scott Moe’s education cuts and recent layoffs of 80 educational assistants means students and families are going without the support they need, and it means frontline workers are either being asked to do more with less, or losing their jobs altogether.

In Scott Moe’s education system, everybody loses.

Recently, Saskatoon Public Schools laid-off 80 educational assistants. CUPE Local 8443 president, Dene Nicholson, said it best: “The provincial government has refused to acknowledge or step in and cover salaries for the next four months, leaving these students unassisted and these educational assistants without the security of regular employment until the end of June. Despite this, each level of government continues to pass responsibility to someone else. They fail to recognize that the wellbeing and education of all children is a shared obligation. As education workers, we understand this fundamental truth—why doesn’t the government?”

She added: “Students, who rely on their guidance and care, deserve the best chance at a successful education.”

Enough is enough. Scott Moe and Sask. Party must step in right now to fund the 80 educational assistant positions, and use the upcoming provincial budget as a last chance to drastically increase funding to fix Saskatchewan’s broken schools.

– Kent Peterson, CUPE Saskatchewan President

/n.m.cope342