The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, must be smiling over the war of words between Saskatchewan teachers, the school boards and the provincial government.
Thatcher was a big proponent of privatization – reducing the role of government by transferring it to non-governmental hands, much like the demands of the province’s teachers who want budgetary control transferred from the province to their collective bargaining agreement, effectively privatizing those functions.
On the other side of the table, we have a right-wing administration fighting for continued government control. Thatcher must be smiling if not laughing out loud.
The one difference, though, is that Thatcher handed responsibility and ownership over to the new owners – not give control without responsibility for on-going funding. While teachers hope to protect classroom funding by locking it into a contract, it is a one-way street.
Sure, they could call on the government to sustain funding by invoking the contract wording, but the government could do the same. Imagine if Saskatchewan saw school enrollment grow by 1,000, 2,000 or 20,000, the government could say the contract fixed its contribution, leaving teachers to manage any shortfall.
